ma 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


GIFT  OF 

Mrs.  Helen  Ranney 


[\J  Z  W    t^  / 


LIFE    AND    LETTERS 


OF 


ERASMUS 


LECTURES  DELIVERED  AT  OXFORD  1893-4 


BY 

J.  A.  FROUDE 

tit 

REGIUS   PROFESSOR  OF   MODERN   HISTORY 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCKIBNER'S   SONS 

1894 

\All  rii/hls  reserved] 


LIFE  AND  LETTERS   OF  ERASMUS. 


LECTURE  I. 


The  subject  of  these  lectures  was  born  at  Rotter- 
dam in  1467.  Charles  the  Bold  had  just  become 
Duke  of  Burgundy.  Louis  XL  was  King  of  France. 
Philip  de  Commines  will  have  told  you  about  Charles 
and  Louis.  If  not  De  Commines,  you  will  have  read 
about  them  in  "  Quentin  Durward."  Edward  IV.  had 
fought  his  way  to  the  throne  of  England.  Caxton 
was  just  setting  up  his  printing-press,  and  Columbus 
was  making  adventurous  voyages  anywhere  between 
Iceland  and  the  tropics,  observing  the  stars  and  med- 
itating on  the  shape  of  the  globe.  The  country  in 
which  Erasmus  came  into  the  world  was  the  rival  of 
Italy  in  commerce  and  art  and  learning.  Antwerp 
was  the  mart  of  Western  Europe.  The  towns  in  the 
Low  Countries  —  Bruges,  Ghent,  Brussels,  Amster- 
dam—  were  great  manufacturing  centres,  inhabited 
by  a  dense  population  of  industrious  burghers  and  ar- 
tisans, subjects  of  the  Duchy  of  Burgundy,  but  tena- 
cious of  their  liberties,  and  fierce  in  asserting  them ; 
governed  by  their  own  laws  aud  their  own  representa- 
tives —  a  free  people  in  the  modern  sense.  If  the 
mind  of  a  man  inherits  its  qualities  from  the  stock  to 
which  he  belongs,  there  was  no  likelier  spot  in  Europe 
to  be  the  birthplace  of  a  vigorous  independent  thinker. 

The  father  of  Erasmus  was  named  Gerrard,  pro- 


2  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

nouneed,  I  suppose,  Gierard,  from  gieren  " to  desire" 
or  "  long  passionately."  In  the  son  the  word  was 
Latinized  into  Desiderius,  and  Graecized  afterwards 
according  to  the  affectation  of  the  time  into  Erasmus, 
just  as  Reuchlin  became  Capnio,  and  Swartzerde  was 
turned  into  Melanchthon ;  affectionate  nicknames 
which  hardened  into  permanence.  Legend  says  that 
Erasmus  was  what  is  called  a  love-child.  The  father 
was  a  man  of  some  station,  well  educated  —  with  a 
singularly  interesting  and  even  fascinating  character. 
He  fell  in  love,  it  is  said,  with  a  certain  Margaret, 
daughter  of  a  physician  at  Sieben  Bergen.  Margaret 
was  equally  in  love  with  him.  For  some  unknown 
reason  the  relations,  either  his  or  hers,  opposed  their 
marriage.  They  were  imprudent,  and  the  usual  con- 
sequences seemed  likely  to  follow.  At  this  dangerous 
time  business  of  some  kind  required  Gerrard's  pres- 
ence at  Rome.  He  went  expecting  to  return  immedi- 
ately, when  the  marriage  was  to  be  completed,  to  save 
the  legitimacy  of  the  expected  child.  He  was  de- 
tained. Communications  were  irregular.  The  rela- 
tions sent  a  story  after  him  that  Margaret  was  dead. 
He  believed  it,  and  in  despair  became  a  priest.  His 
marriage  was  made  thus  impossible,  and  he  discovered 
the  trick  when  it  was  too  late  for  remedy.  Thus  the 
child  was  born  out  of  wedlock. 

So  ran  the  story.  It  grew  up  out  of  tradition  when 
Erasmus  had  become  famous,  and  his  enemies  liked  to 
throw  a  slur  upon  his  parentage.  It  is  perhaps  a  lie 
altogether  ;  perhaps  only  partly  a  lie.  The  difficulty 
is  that  Erasmus  says  distinctly  that  he  was  a  second 
child,  and  had  a  brother  three  years  older  than  him- 
self. There  is  no  suggestion  of  any  previous  marriage 
with  another  person.  The  connection  of  his  father 
and  mother  must  therefore  have  been  of  long  continu- 


Lecture  I.  3 

ance.  Erasmus's  own  letters  are  the  only  trustworthy- 
authority  for  his  early  life.  From  them  we  learn  that 
the  two  children  were  brought  up  like  other  people's 
children  under  the  joint  care  of  their  father  and 
mother,  and  that  the  younger  was  his  mother's  special 
favourite,  a  bright  clever  little  fellow,  with  flaxen  hair, 
grey-blue  eyes,  and  sharp  clean-cut  features;  very 
pretty,  it  is  said,  and  with  a  sweet-toned  voice  which 
seemed  to  say  that  Nature  meant  him  for  a  musician. 
The  mother  thought  so,  and  proposed  to  make  a  little 
angel  of  him,  and  train  him  as  a  chorister.  But  he 
had  no  real  gift  that  way,  and  no  taste  for  it.  In  his 
later  years  he  came  even  to  hate  the  droning  of  eccle- 
siastical music. 

The  chorister  plan  failing,  he  was  entered  when 
nine  years  old  as  a  day  boy  at  a  school  at  Deventer  ; 
his  mother  removing  there  from  Rotterdam  to  take 
care  of  him.  The  school  had  a  reputation.  The  mas- 
ter was  a  friend  of  his  father :  among  his  schoolfel- 
lows were  several  who  were  afterwards  distinguished, 
especially  Adrian  of  Utrecht,  tutor  to  Charles  V., 
Cardinal  Regent  of  Spain,  and  eventually  pope.  The 
little  boy  soon  showed  talent,  had  an  extraordinary 
memory,  learnt  Horace  and  Terence  by  heart,  and 
composed  verses  of  his  own.  He  showed  a  passionate 
fondness  for  books ;  devoured  all  that  he  could  get 
hold  of ;  got  up  mimic  debates  ;  challenged  other  bo}'S 
to  dispute  with  him  on  points  of  language  or  literature 
in  approved  university  stylo.  lie  says  that  he  was  ill- 
taught,  that  his  master  was  illiterate,  and  did  not  un- 
derstand him.  He  once  composed  what  he  considered 
an  excellent  Latin  letter  to  the  man,  for  which  he  ex- 
pected to  be  complimented.  The  master  only  told 
him  to  mind  his  handwriting,  and  attend  to  his  punc- 
tuation.    There  was  free  use  of  the  rod  besides,  and 


4  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Erasmus  never  pardoned  his  tyrant  as  Horace  par- 
doned his  plagosus  Orbilius.  One  can  easily  under- 
stand that  a  quick  forward  lad,  conscious  of  superior 
abilities,  may  have  been  troublesome  and  insubordi- 
nate. There  is  a  story  of  a  pear-tree  in  a  convent 
garden  which  the  boys  now  and  then  visited  at  night, 
with  Erasmus  for  a  ringleader,  when  the  rod  may 
have  been  legitimately  called  into  use.  But  he  says 
distinctly  that  he  was  once  severely  flogged  for  a  fault 
of  which  the  master  knew  that  he  was  innocent,  merely 
from  a  general  theory  that  a  flogging  would  be  good 
for  him. 

He  could  never  have  been  the  model  good  boy  of 
story-books,  who  learnt  his  lessons  and  never  did 
wrong.  It  is  noticeable,  however,  that,  in  spite  of 
this,  it  was  early  recognized  that  he  was  no  common 
lad.  He  was  pointed  out  to  visitors  as  a  boy  of  ex- 
ceptional promise.  When  he  was  eleven  years  old, 
the  famous  Rudolph  Agricola1  came  to  Deventer  to 
inspect  the  school.  Erasmus  was  brought  up  to  him : 
the  great  man  patted  his  flaxen  poll,  and  said,  "  This 
little  fellow  will  come  to  something  by-and-by." 

Erasmus  hated  the  master,  and  perhaps  with  some 
reason.  We  have  only  Erasmus's  own  story,  how- 
ever, and  one  would  like  to  hear  the  other.  It  is  quite 
certain  that  the  man  retained  the  confidence  of  Eras- 
mus's father  in  spite  of  the  boy's  complaints. 

Shortly  after  the  visit  of  Agricola  the  mother  died. 
Her  husband  was  unable  to  survive  her  loss.  Eras- 
mus and  his  elder  brother  Peter  were  now  orphans, 
and  were  left  under  the  guardianship  of  three  of  his 
father's  friends,  a  banker  in  the  town,  a  burgher  un- 
named who  soon  died  of  the  plague,  and  the  master  of 
another  school  at  Goude.     The  banker  was  busy  with 

1  Others  say  it  was  Zinthius. 


Lecture  I.  5 

his  own  affairs,  and  gave  the  schoolmaster  the  whole 
charge.  There  was  some  property,  in  ready  money, 
bills,  and  land  —  not  much,  Erasmus  says,  hut  enough 
to  launch  his  brother  and  himself  respectably  in  the 
world. 

What  followed  was  related  afterwards  by  himself 
in  a  letter  to  Grunnius,  a  high  official  at  the  Apos- 
tolic Court,  and  intended  of  course  for  the  Pope  him- 
self.1 Erasmus  never  told  wilful  lies.  He  detested 
lies  as  heartily  as  Achilles,  but  he  never  forgave  an 
injury,  and  a  fool  to  him  was  as  much  a  criminal  as 
a  knave.  The  guardians,  he  says,  made  away  with 
this  property.  He  suggests  fraud ;  but  as  he  adds 
that  it  is  a  common  fault  of  guardians  to  neglect  their 
wards'  interests,  he  means  no  more  than  that  they 
were  guilty  of  culpable  negligence.  The  banker  had 
left  all  to  the  schoolmaster.  The  schoolmaster  had 
been  careless  ;  money,  land,  and  bills  were  wasted 
almost  to  nothing,  and  to  crown  their  own  delin- 
quency and  get  their  charge  off  their  hands,  they 
agreed  that  the  two  boys  should  be  sent  into  a  monas- 
tery, and  so,  as  the  phrase  went,  be  provided  for.  It 
was  against  the  Canons.  They  were  still  little  more 
than  children,  and  the  monastic  vow,  according  to 
Church  law,  was  not  to  be  taken  by  anyone  under 
age.  But  practice  and  connivance  had  set  Church 
law  aside.  Inconvenient  members  were  disposed  of 
in  this  way  by  their  families.  The  kidnapping  of 
boys  and  girls  who  had  either  money,  or  rank,  or 
talent,  was  a  common  method  of  recruiting  among 
the  religious  orders  in  the  15th  century.  It  is  al- 
luded to  and  sharply  condemned  by  a  statute  of 
Henry  IV.,  passed  by  the  English  Parliament.  Eras- 
mus appeals  in  the  letter  I  speak  of   to  the   Papal 

1  Erasnii  EpistoUe.     Appendix  cccexlii. 


6  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Secretary's  personal  knowledge.  The  Pharisees,  he 
says,  compass  sea  and  land  to  sweep  in  proselytes. 
They  hang  about  Princes'  Courts  and  rich  men's 
houses.  They  haunt  schools  and  colleges,  playing  on 
the  credulity  of  children  or  their  friends,  and  entan- 
gling them  in  meshes  from  which,  when  they  are  once 
caught,  there  is  no  escape.  He  does  not  mince  his 
words.  "  The  world,"  he  says,  "  is  full  of  these  trick- 
sters. When  they  hear  of  a  lad  of  promise  with 
wealthy  parents,  they  lay  traps  for  him  unknown  to 
his  relations.  In  reality  they  are  no  better  than  so 
many  thieves,  but  they  colour  their  arts  under  the 
name  of  piety.  They  talk  to  the  child  himself  of 
the  workings  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  of  vocations  which 
parents  must  not  interfere  with,  of  the  wiles  of  the 
devil ;  as  if  the  devil  was  never  to  be  found  inside  a 
monastery.  This  truth  comes  out  at  last,  but  only 
when  the  case  is  past  mending.  The  ears  of  all 
mankind  are  tingling  with  the  cries  of  these  wretched 
captives." 

I  do  not  condemn  the  religious  orders  as  such  (he 
continues).  I  do  not  approve  of  those  who  make  the 
plunge,  and  then  fly  back  to  liberty  as  a  license  for 
loose  living,  and  desert  improperly  what  they  under- 
took foolishly.  But  dispositions  vary  ;  all  things  do 
not  suit  all  characters,  and  no  worse  misfortune  can 
befall  a  lad  of  intellect  than  to  be  buried  under  con- 
ditions from  which  he  can  never  after  extricate  him- 
self. The  world  thought  well  of  my  schoolmaster 
guardian,  because  he  was  neither  a  liar,  nor  a  scamp, 
nor  a  gambler ;  but  he  was  coarse,  avaricious,  and 
ignorant ;  he  knew  nothing  beyond  the  confused  les- 
sons which  he  taught  to  his  classes.  He  imagined 
that  in  forcing  a  youth  to  become  a  monk  he  would 
be  offering  a  sacrifice  acceptable  to  God.  He  used  to 
boast  of  the  many  victims  which  he  devoted  annually 
to  Dominic  and  Francis  and  Benedict. 


Lecture  I.  7 

Erasmus,  from  his  earliest  years,  had  a  passion  for 
learning.  He  had  no  help  from  anyone.  He  tells 
us  that  he  was  carried  away  as  if  by  some  secret  spon- 
taneous impulse.  He  was  checked,  threatened,  repri- 
manded. He  was  refused  access  to  books.  But  they 
could  not  be  wholly  kept  from  him,  and  he  devoured 
all  that  he  could  get.  He  wrote  verses,  essays,  any- 
thing that  came  to  hand.  From  the  first  (he  says) 
he  was  far  too  precipitate,  flying  at  the  first  subject 
which  offered.  Haste  made  him  careless :  and  this 
fault  always  clung  to  him.  In  later  life  he  was  never 
able  to  endure  the  bore  of  correcting  his  books.  As 
Plato  said,  he  made  such  haste  at  starting  that  he 
came  late  to  the  goal.  But  such  was  his  disposition. 
He  was  always  at  work :  writing  prose,  writing  verse 
—  verse  in  preference,  which  came  easier.  He  com- 
posed whole  heroic  poems.  He  addressed  a  Sapphic 
Ode  to  the  Archangel  Michael.  To  send  such  a 
youth  as  that  into  a  monastery  was  a  sentence  of 
death.  Into  a  monastery,  however,  the  guardians 
had  determined  that  go  he  shoidd,  and  his  brother 
Peter  along  with  him.  When  they  had  done  with 
grammar,  were  beginning  logic,  and  were  old  enough 
to  stand  alone,  the  time  had  come  for  the  first  steps 
to  be  taken.  If  they  were  left  longer  at  large  it  was 
thought  that  they  might  get  a  taste  for  the  world  and 
refuse  the  fate  intended  for  them.  They  were,  there- 
fore, placed  as  a  commencement  in  a  house  of  Colla- 
tionary  Fathers.  Except  from  this  account  of  Eras- 
mus, I  never  heard  of  these  people,  nor  can  I  learn 
any  more  about  them.  Erasmus  says  that  they  were 
a  community  who  had  nests  all  over  Christendom,  and 
made  their  living  by  netting  proselytes  for  the  regu- 
lar orders.  Their  business  was  to  catch  in  some  way 
superior   lads,   threaten    them,   frighten   them,   beat 


8  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

them,  crush  their  spirits,  tame  them,  as  the  process 
was  called,  and  break  them  in  for  the  cloister.  They 
were  generally  very  successful.  They  did  their  work 
so  well  that  the  Franciscans  and  Dominicans  admitted 
that  without  the  Collationaries'  help  their  orders 
would  die  out.  In  no  institutions  were  students 
worse  taught  or  learnt  grosser  manners.  In  one  of 
these  Erasmus  and  Peter  wasted  two  years  of  their 
youth.  Erasmus  knew  more  than  his  teachers  of  the 
special  subjects  in  which  they  tried  to  instruct  him, 
and  found  them  models  of  conceit  and  ignorance.  A 
member  of  the  fraternity,  less  a  fool  than  the  rest  and 
recognizing  the  boy's  abilities,  advised  him  to  become 
a  Collationary  himself,  and  he  says  it  was  a  pity  that 
he  did  not,  for  he  could  have  then  remained  with 
them  or  have  left  them  at  his  pleasure.  The  Colla- 
tionaries took  no  irrevocable  vows.  If  wise  men  and 
not  fools  had  the  ordering  of  the  world,  he  bitterly 
observes,  no  in-evocable  vows  would  be  taken  any- 
where except  in  baptism. 

Well,  this  Collationary,  Erasmus  says,  did  contrive 
to  get  an  influence  over  him,  kissed  him,  caressed 
him,  flattered  him,  urged  him,  if  he  would  not  remain 
with  themselves,  to  consent  to  his  friends'  wishes. 
lie  pleaded  his  youth ;  he  said  that  till  he  was  older 
he  could  not  decide  on  so  grave  a  matter,  and  must 
take  time  to  think  about  it.  Collationaries  sometimes 
employed  incantations  and  exorcisms  when  they  found 
boys  hesitating  and  frightened.  His  new  friend 
spared  him  such  methods  of  conversion,  and  let  him 
alone  for  the  exhortations  to  work.  The  effect  passed 
off.  When  the  two  years  were  out,  Erasmus  and  Pe- 
ter 1  returned  home.     Peter  in  a  year  or  two  would  be 

1  This  brother  is  called  Anthony  in  the  letter  to  Grunnius,  Erasmus 
calling  himself  Florence.  Peter,  according  to  Dupin,  was  the  brother's 
real  name. 


Lecture  I.  9 

of  age,  when  the  guardians  would  have  to  produce 
their  accounts.  Erasmus  says  that  they  could  not 
face  the  exposure,  and  resolved  to  wait  no  longer. 
Into  the  cloister  the  boys  should  go,  and  no  more  talk 
about  it.  The  banker  left  all  to  the  schoolmaster. 
The  schoolmaster  professed  to  think  that  he  would 
please  God  Almighty  by  presenting  him  with  a  pair 
of  lambs. 

I  must  again  remind  you  that  all  this  was  written 
for  the  Pope.  It  was  not  the  calumny  of  an  apostate 
addressed  to  a  revolted  or  revolting  world.  It  was 
an  appeal  to  the  Father  of  Christendom  to  interpose 
with  his  authority  and  end  an  intolerable  abuse. 

Erasmus  was  now  fifteen  ;  Peter,  as  I  have  said, 
being  three  years  older.  When  their  intended  fate 
was  communicated  to  them  they  consulted  what  they 
should  do.  Peter  hated  the  prospect  as  heartily  as 
Erasmus,  but  he  was  a  cowardly  lad  and  was  afraid  of 
disobeying  his  guardians.  Erasmus  had  better  spirit. 
He  had  not  spent  two  years  with  the  Collationaries 
for  nothing.  Peter,  as  the  elder,  would  have  to  speak 
first.  Erasmus  told  him  it  would  be  madness  to  snve 
way  ;  at  worst  the  guardians  could  but  beat  them,  and 
what  signified  a  beating  ?  He  bade  his  brother  pluck 
up  his  courage ;  they  would  scrape  the  wreck  of  their 
fortunes  together  and  go  to  Paris  to  the  university ; 
never  fear  they  would  find  friends  ;  there  would  be 
plenty  of  the  students  in  worse  case  than  they. 

One  can  fancy  the  two  boys :  Peter  a  big  heavy  fel- 
low, dull  and  torpid  ;  Erasmus,  short,  slight,  and  agile, 
with  eyes  flashing  and  heart  rebelling  against  injus- 
tice. Peter  himself  caught  fire  so  far  as  such  damp 
material  would  kindle.  He  promised  to  stand  out  if 
Erasmus  would  undertake  the  speaking.  Erasmus 
agreed  on  condition  that  his  brother  would  swear  to 


10  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

stand  by  him,  and  would  not  leave  him  to  bear  the 
brunt  of  the  storm  by  himself. 

The  moment  came ;  the  guardian  sent  for  them ; 
and  after  a  long  preface  about  his  conscience  and  his 
concern  for  their  welfare,  said  that  he  had  been  fortu- 
nate enough  to  find  them  a  home  in  a  house  of  reli- 
gion.  Like  enough  the  poor  man  meant  it.  If  he  was 
not  a  rogue,  he  had  at  least  mismanaged  his  wards' 
property  ;  and  a  monastery,  as  times  went,  and  in 
most  men's  minds,  was  a  very  proper  place  for  a  pair 
of  orphan  boys.  Monks,  if  they  had  talents,  could 
rise  out  of  monasteries,  and  often  did  rise  to  the  high 
places  in  the  Church.  Erasmus  on  his  side,  however, 
concluded  at  once  that  the  guardian  was  a  rascal  and 
a  hypocrite.  He  answered  politely,  but  not  perhaps 
concealing  his  feeling,  for  himself  and  Peter,  that  they 
were  obliged  to  the  guardian  for  his  care  and  kindness, 
but  they  were  too  young  to  take  irrevocable  vows. 
Neither  of  them  had  ever  been  inside  a  monastery. 
They  did  not  know  what  they  would  be  entering  on  or 
undertaking.  They  wished  to  be  permitted  to  study 
for  a  few  more  years ;  they  would  then  see  their  way 
more  clearly. 

It  is  likely  that  Erasmus  may  have  dropped  out 
other  expressions  which  he  does  not  record.  School- 
masters do  not  like  to  be  contradicted  by  lads  whom 
they  have  recently  flogged,  and  the  justice  of  what 
Erasmus  said  may  not  have  made  it  more  palatable. 
Erasmus  says  that  the  guardian  flew  into  a  rage,  shook 
his  fist  at  him,  called  him  a  young  reprobate,  a  lad 
without  a  soul,  foretold  his  eternal  perdition,  and  de- 
clared that  he  would  throw  up  his  trust.  Their  prop- 
erty was  gone.  He  would  not  be  answerable  further 
for  them.     They  must  now  look  out  for  themselves. 

The  exasperated  gentleman  lashed  Erasmus  with 


Lecture  I.  11 

his  tongue  so  furiously  that  the  poor  lad  burst  into 
tears.  But  he  held  out  stoutly,  and  so  they  parted. 
The  schoolmaster  reported  to  the  banker,  and  they  de- 
cided to  make  one  more  attempt.  Violence  would  n't 
answer  ;  so  they  must  try  flattery.  Men  are  very  like 
one  another  at  all  times  when  you  can  get  a  clear  sight 
of  them,  and  the  story  which  Erasmus  tells  is  very  hu- 
man and  natural.  The  next  meeting  was  in  the  bank- 
er's garden.  The  boys  were  told  to  sit  down.  They 
were  given  wine  and  cake.  The  banker  was  affection- 
ate. He  drew  a  delightful  picture  of  a  life  devoted 
to  religion  ;  earthly  distinctions  likely  enough  to  come 
of  it,  with  Paradise  certain  beyond.  The  great  man 
even  condescended  to  entreaty.  The  foolish  Peter 
blubbered  and  gave  in,  and  Erasmus  was  left  to  fight 
his  battle  by  himself.  With  Peter,  Erasmus  says  in 
his  scornful  way,  the  monastic  life  answered  well. 
Peter's  mind  was  dull  and  his  limbs  were  strong.  He 
was  cunning  and  greedy,  a  thief,  a  stout  man  at  his 
cuj)s,  and  a  fair  performer  with  loose  women.1  Angry 
at  his  desertion,  he  accuses  Peter  of  treachery  like  Is- 
cariot's,  and  says  it  was  a  pity  he  did  not  follow  Iscar- 
iot's  example  a  little  further,  and  hang  himself.  In 
the  end  the  wretched  being  ran  away  from  the  monas- 
tery, took  to  abandoned  courses,  and  died  miserably. 

Erasmus,  whose  tastes  were  all  for  learning,  cared 
nothing  for  the  monks'  enjoyments  and  continued 
obstinate.  His  habits  were  simple.  His  constitution 
was  delicate.  To  break  his  spirit  he  was  hardly 
treated  at  home.  No  one  spoke  to  him.  His  food 
was  cut  down.  He  fell  ill,  but  was  still  determined, 
and  the  blockhead  of  a  guardian  then  set  a  parcel  of 
friars  upon  him,  with  relations,  male  and  female,  per- 

1  "  Illi  puk-hre  cessit  res.  Erat  eniin  nt  ing-enio  tardus  ita  corpore  ro- 
bustus  ;  attentus  ad  rem,  vafer  et  eallidus,  i>ecimiariun  furax ;  stre- 
nuus  conipotor  nee  seortator  ignavus." 


12  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

suading,  threatening,  beseeching  —  all  to  melt  the  will 
of  a  single  boy.  Some  of  the  friars,  he  says,  were 
such  born  fools  that  but  for  their  dress  he  would  have 
expected  to  see  them  with  caps  and  bells.  Others 
were  seeming  saints,  with  long,  grave  faces  and  airs 
of  piety.  He  allows  that  perhaps  they  meant  well, 
but  it  mattered  little,  he  said,  to  a  perishing  soul 
whether  it  was  murdered  by  folly  or  by  perversity. 
Every  imaginable  weapon  was  made  use  of  to  batter 
down  his  resistance.  One  holy  man  described  to  him 
the  sweet  peace  of  the  cloister,  where  all  was  beautiful 
down  to  the  quartan  agues.  The  brighter  side  was 
put  forward  in  exaggerated  figures.  The  bad  was 
passed  over  as  if  it  had  no  existence.  Another  fellow 
put  before  him  in  tragic  colours  the  perils  of  the 
world,  as  if  there  were  no  monks  who  lived  in  the 
world  and  for  the  world.  He  described  the  world  as 
a  stormy  ocean ;  the  monastery  as  a  seaworthy  ship 
floating  securely  in  the  tempest,  while  those  outside 
were  buffeting  with  the  waves  and  perishing,  unless 
some  friendly  hand  would  throw  them  a  spar  or  a 
rope.  A  third  described  the  perils  of  hell,  as  if  no 
road  led  to  hell  out  of  a  religious  house.  All  went  to 
heaven  who  died  in  a  monastery.  If  a  monk's  own 
merits  were  not  enough,  he  was  saved  by  the  merits  of 
the  order,  and  the  Franciscans  kept  a  stock  of  stories 
ready  of  the  established  sort  —  how  a  tired  traveller 
seated  himself  on  a  serpent  which  he  mistook  for  the 
root  of  a  tree ;  how  the  serpent  rose  up  and  devoured 
him,  and  how  the  world,  serpent-like,  devours  those 
who  rest  upon  it.  How  another  traveller  called  once 
at  a  religious  house  ;  how  the  brethren  besought  him 
to  remain  and  become  one  of  them  ;  how  he  would  not 
and  went  his  way,  and  how  a  lion  met  him  and  ate 
him  up.      Tale  followed  tale,  absurd  as  old  nurses' 


Lecture  I.  13 

ghost  stories.  A  monk  in  special  favour  was  allowed 
to  converse  regularly  with  Christ  at  stated  hours. 
Catherine  of  Sienna  (mind,  I  am  reading  to  you 
Erasmus's  words  to  the  Pope)  —  Catherine  of  Sienna 
had  Christ  for  a  lover.  She  and  Christ  used  to  walk 
up  and  down  a  room  side  by  side,  and  repeated  their 
Hours  together.1  The  argument  of  arguments  was 
the  stock  of  good  works  accumulated  by  the  fraternity 
and  availing  for  all,  as  if  there  were  not  fraternities 
which  had  more  need  of  Christ's  mercy  than  the  chil- 
dren of  this  world. 

In  short,  no  artifice  was  left  untried  to  vanquish  a 
sick  child  deserted  by  his  treacherous  brother.  He 
was  watched  like  a  besieged  city.  The  rival  orders  in 
the  town  had  their  emissaries  clutching  at  him  on 
account  of  his  reputed  talents,  each  wishing  to  secure 
a  proselyte  who  they  hoped  would  be  an  ornament  to 
their  community. 

To  cut  short  a  long  story.  The  persecuted  Erasmus 
wandered  about  forlorn  and  neglected.  One  day, 
apparently  by  accident,  though  really  in  consequence 
of  a  preconcerted  plot,  he  was  led  to  call  at  a  convent 
near  Deventer.  He  found  there  an  old  acquaintance 
named  Cantelius,  whom  he  had  known  from  child- 
hood. A  friend's  face  was  pleasant  to  him.  He  sus- 
pected nothing.  Cantelius  was  the  last  person  whom 
he  could  have  supposed  likely  to  entangle  him.  Can- 
telius was  a  stupid,  ignorant  fellow,  who  had  taken 
the  vows  from  idleness  and  love  of  good  living.  He 
had  a  fine  voice,  sang  well,  and  had  wandered  about 
the  world  as  a  musician.  In  the  end  he  had  come 
home,  and,  finding  his  relations  unwilling  to  support 
him,  he  had  taken  to  the  cloister.     There  he  found  all 

1  "  Cui   puellse  tanla  fiiit  emu   Cliiisto  Spoiiso,  vel  Amasio  potius, 
familiaritas,  at  ultra  citraque  deambularent  in  cubiculo  nonnunquam 

ct  preees  horarias  simul  absolvureiit." 


14  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

that  he  wanted.  You  could  do  as  you  liked  —  plenty 
to  eat  and  drink,  and  no  tight  lacing.  The  brethren 
were  all  good  friends  and  never  quarrelled,  and  he 
strongly  advised  Erasmus  to  follow  his  example.  If 
he  wished  for  books  there  was  the  library  and  a  quiet 
place  for  reading.  The  schoolmaster  had  instructed 
him  how  to  bait  his  hook,  and  he  did  his  work  well. 

Erasmus  liked  Cantelius.  He  heard  from  him  the 
real  truth.  There  were  no  airs  of  affected  piety  ;  and 
harassed,  lonely,  and  desolate,  he  was  half  persuaded 
to  accept  a  fate  where  freedom  and  books  were  pro- 
mised him.  Half  persuaded,  but  not  entirely.  He 
still  hesitated,  but  the  chorus  of  priests  and  connec- 
tions grew  louder  with  the  hopes  of  success.  Again 
they  put  before  him  the  desperate  condition  of  his 
fortune  and  the  hopelessness  of  his  prospects.  At 
last,  as  an  experiment,  he  agreed  to  try  a  few  months 
as  a  boarder  at  a  house  of  Augustinian  canons,  the 
special  attraction  being  a  fine  collection  of  classics. 
Nothing  was  said  to  him  about  vows  or  observances. 
He  was  to  do  as  he  pleased,  and  to  leave  if  he  did  not 
wish  to  remain.  His  home  was  intolerable  to  him, 
and  the  temptation  of  books  was  irresistible.  He 
went.  The  brethren  showed  their  fairest  side  to  him. 
They  were  all  smiles,  sang  with  him,  joked  with  him, 
and  capped  verses.  He  was  not  required  to  fast. 
Pie  was  not  disturbed  for  Nocturns.  He  could  study 
as  freely  and  as  long  as  he  chose.  No  one  spoke  a 
harsh  word  to  him,  and  so  the  months  ran  on  till  the 
time  came  when  he  must  either  take  the  novice's  dress 
or  else  leave. 

He  had  not  yet  given  in.  Once  more  he  addressed 
himself  to  his  guardians,  demanded  his  liberty,  and 
such  of  his  inheritance  as  was  left.  They  produced 
accounts  which  made  him  out  to  be  a  beggar.     He 


Lecture  I.  15 

still  detested  monkdora  as  heartily  as  ever,  but  lie  was 
desperate  and  friendless,  and  at  length,  and  after  a 
hard  struggle,  he  agreed  to  go  on  a  step  further  and 
try  the  noviciate.     The  ceremony  was  undergone,  and 
seemed  at  first  to  make  no  great  difference.     He  was 
still  treated  with  exceptional  indulgence.     He  passed 
his  time  in  the  library  devouring  books.     But  even 
the  volumes  themselves  made  him  discontented.     He 
was  conscious  of  high  talents.     He  had  ambition,  and 
was  burning  to  distinguish  himself,  and  the  road  to 
eminence  as  a  monk  was  not  such  as  a  youth  of  free 
and  true   intelligence   could    care   to   rise   by.     The 
chantings    and  the  chapel-goings  wearied  him.     The 
officials  might  be  good-natured,  but  they  were  illiter- 
ate blockheads.     Intellect  was  not  encouraged  in  such 
places.     Lads  of  intellect  were  troublesome  and  to  be 
kept  down.     The  thing  wanted  was  a  robust   body, 
and  tough  fellows  with  strong  stomachs  found  highest 
favour.     How,  he  asked,  was  a  youth  born  for  the 
Muses  and  the  Graces  to  pass  his  life  in  a  society  like 
this?     His  health  was  always  delicate.     Fasting  dis- 
agreed with  him.     If  he  tried  it  he  suffered  tortures 
from  dyspepsia.     Sturdy  ruffians  could  laugh  at  such 
inconveniences.     "  They  were  like  vultures,"  he  said  ; 
"  stuff  them  full  one  day,  they  could  hold  out  over  the 
next."     Bodies  organised  more   delicately   must   eat 
little  and  eat  regularly.     He  was  a  bad  sleeper.     If 
he  was  roused  once  in  the  night  he  could  not  go  off 
again.     He  could  not  endure  salt  fish.     The  smell  of 
it  made  him  sick.     Had  the  fathers  been  men  of  ordi- 
nary sense  or  humanity,  they  would  have  seen  how 
matters  stood  with  him.     They  would  have  told  him 
that  it  was  useless  to  go  on  ;  that  he  was  not  fit  for 
monastic  life,  or  monastic  life  for  him,  and  that  he 
had  better  choose  another  profession  before  it  was  too 


16  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

late.  Christ  was  to  be  found  elsewhere  as  well  as  in 
religions  houses.  Piety  did  not  depend  on  dress, 
lie  must  not  remain.  This,  Erasmus  says,  is  the 
advice  which  ought  to  have  been  given  to  him.  But 
the  fish  was  in  the  net,  and  in  the  net  they  meant  to 
keep  him.  One  said  his  sufferings  were  a  device  of 
Satan  to  draw  him  from  Christ.  Let  him  defy  Satan, 
and  all  would  be  well.  He  was  mistaken  in  thinking 
his  condition  singular.  They  had  all  experienced  the 
same  sensation  when  they  began.  Let  him  persevere ; 
he  would  soon  find  himself  in  Paradise.  Another 
warned  him  how  he  displeased  St.  Augustine.  St. 
Augustine  was  a  dangerous  person  to  provoke.  Muti- 
nous brothers  had  been  struck  by  plague  or  by  light- 
ning, or  had  been  bitten  by  snakes.  For  a  novice  to 
desert  after  having  made  a  beginning  was  the  worst 
crime  that  he  could  commit.  He  had  put  his  hand  to 
the  plough ;  it  was  too  late  for  looking  back.  If  he 
threw  the  dress  off  he  would  be  the  talk  of  the  neigh- 
bourhood ;  he  would  be  branded  as  an  apostate ;  the 
monks  would  curse  him ;  the  world  would  despise  him. 
The  poor  lad  could  not  face  the  thought  of  public  dis- 
grace. He  felt  he  would  sooner  die  than  be  held  up 
to  scorn.  Guardians  and  friends  sang  the  same  song, 
and  at  last  he  was  forced  to  yield.  He  was  but  seven- 
teen, and  the  stream  was  too  strong  to  struggle  with 
further.  He  loathed  what  he  was  doing.  The  words 
were  forced  into  his  mouth  and  choked  him  as  he 
spoke  his  assent.  The  halter  was  about  his  neck. 
He  was  like  a  handcuffed  prisoner  in  the  clutches  of 
the  police.  The  vow  was  twisted  out  of  him  as  if  he 
was  on  the  rack,  and  the  fatal  declaration  was  uttered. 
This  is  Erasmus's  own  account  of  his  profession, 
exactly  as  he  related  it  to  the  Pope.  It  was  the  expe- 
rience of  thousands  besides  himself,  whose  cries  in  their 


Lecture  I.  17 

dungeons,  lie  said,  were  ringing  over  Europe.  He  had 
made  himself  into  an  Augustinian  monk,  and  the  ink 
spot  was  rubbed  into  his  skin  which  even  a  papal  wash- 
ing would  not  wholly  obliterate.  For  a  time  he  was 
allowed  to  comfort  himself  in  the  library,  but  it  was 
found  necessary  to  teach  him  the  lesson  of  holy  obedi- 
ence, and  the  books  were  taken  away.  He  found  that 
he  might  get  drunk  as  often  and  as  openly  as  he  pleased, 
but  study  was  a  forbidden  indulgence. 

A  poor  wretch  once  under  the  yoke  had  little  means 
of  making  his  condition  known.  He  might  cry  out,  but 
no  one  would  attend.  The  bishops  had  no  authority 
inside  the  convent  walls.  The  generals  of  the  orders 
lived  in  Italy.  From  the  generals  there  was  no  appeal 
except  to  the  Pope,  and  the  shrieks  of  a  discontented 
youth  in  Holland  could  not  reach  the  Vatican.  There 
was  no  help  in  the  civil  power.  The  civil  power  before 
the  Reformation  was  the  humble  servant  of  the  Church. 
If  a  monk  ran  away  or  rebelled,  the  civil  power  simply 
arrested  him  and  sent  him  back  with  fetters  to  his  mas- 
ters. Erasmus  was  too  finely  strung  to  have  drifted 
away  like  the  rest  of  his  companions  in  the  convent  to 
brutality  and  vice.  But  to  have  spent  his  life  in  a 
community  where  brutal  pleasures  were  the  only  re- 
source and  the  only  occupation  would  probably  have 
broken  his  heart,  and  the  world  would  have  heard  no 
more  of  him. 

But  even  in  a  monastery  in  the  fifteenth  century  hu- 
man pity  and  human  sense  were  not  entirely  extinct. 
Though  monks  could  not  repudiate  their  vows,  they 
could  obtain  a  dispensation  from  the  Pope  for  non-resi- 
dence if  they  had  friends  at  court  who  would  find  the 
money.  Popes  as  vicars  of  Christ  coidd  do  anything. 
The  prior  of  the  convent  at  last  noticed  his  condition. 
It  seemed  shocking   that  a  youth  with  so  fine  a  talent 


18  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

should  be  smothered  in  sitch  a  vile  dung-heap.  Possibly, 
one  may  hope,  the  prior  felt  some  natural  remorse. 
He  advised  Erasmus  to  throw  himself  on  the  protection 
of  the  Bishop  of  Cambray,  and  for  fear  the  poor  monk 
might  not  be  listened  to  by  so  great  a  person,  he  prob- 
ably communicated  with  the  Bishop  himself.  The 
Bishop  was  a  man  of  sense.  He  could  not  interfere 
directly,  but  he  had  the  Pope's  ear.  He  was  able  to 
represent  at  the  Vatican  that  he  wanted  a  secretary,* 
and  that  there  was  a  youth  in  a  monastery  in  Holland 
of  fine  talents  who  would  exactly  suit  him.  Dispensa- 
tions from  the  vow  altogether  were  given  only  on  rare 
and  extreme  occasions.  Dispensations  for  temporary  ab- 
sence from  the  convent  on  adequate  cause  shown  were 
easily  obtained  when  applied  for  by  persons  of  conse- 
quence. 

Erasmus  was  thus  set  loose  from  the  den  into  which 
he  had  fallen,  and  was  given  back  to  liberty  and  hope. 
Long  after,  when  he  had  become  famous,  the  Augustin- 
ians  tried  to  ref  asten  the  yoke  upon  him.  It  was  then 
that  he  told  his  story  to  the  Pope,  appealed  for  final 
protection,  and  found  it.  For  the  present  his  freedom 
was  conditional.  The  Bishop  was  kind,  but  pedantic 
and  narrow.  Erasmus  had  his  troubles  in  the  palace, 
as  Gil  Bias  had  with  the  Spanish  Primate.  A  secretary 
or  companion  to  a  Church  dignitary  was  but  a  higher 
kind  of  valet,  and  a  mercurial  genius  like  Erasmus 
had  doubtless  a  good  deal  to  bear.  But  his  high  patron 
was  essentially  good  to  him,  and  occasionally  when  he 
could  spare  his  services  sent  him  to  improve  himself  at 
Louvain. 

You  will  ask  if  all  monasteries  were  like  that  in  which 
Erasmus  suffered ;  you  will  hear  more  of  this  as  we  go 
on.  Erasmus  will  tell  you  that  a  great  many  of  them 
were  no  better  than  lupanaria.     If  you  desire  partic- 


Lecture  I.  19 

ulars  you  will  find  particulars  more  than  enough  in  Car- 
dinal Morton's  account  of  the  Abbey  of  St.  Albans  at 
the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century.  Sir  T.  More  fixes  a 
hundred  years  before  his  time  as  the  period  at  which 
monastic  degradation  began.  There  is  no  period  in 
English  history  when  you  do  not  find  corruption  and 
irregularity,  but  in  the  fifteenth  century  the  degrada- 
tion had  become  universal. 

It  is  said  now  that  the  stories  told  about  the  monks 
were  calumnies  invented  by  kings  and  politicians  to 
justify  spoliation.  Let  those  who  incline  to  think  so 
remember  that  they  are  not  entitled  to  calumniate  with- 
out proof  the  actions  of  men  otherwise  honourable,  and 
study  the  preamble  to  the  English  Act  of  Dissolution. 


LECTURE  II. 

In  the  rescue  of  Erasmus  from  the  monastic  purga- 
tory the  Bishop  of  Cambray  had  shown  sense  and 
feeling'.  His  action  may  not  have  been  entirely  disin- 
terested. No  love  was  lost  between  the  secular  pre- 
lates and  the  monastic  orders.  The  prelates  naturally 
wished  to  rule  in  their  own  dioceses.  The  friars  were 
exempt  from  their  jurisdiction,  took  possession  of  the 
pulpits,  heard  confessions,  dispossessed  the  secular 
clergy  of  half  their  functions.  The  Bishop  may  have 
felt  some  human  satisfaction  in  recovering  a  youth  of 
promise  out  of  the  clutches  of  proud  and  insolent  men 
who  defied  his  authority,  and  had  the  youth  been  a 
docile  subject  he  might  have  been  glad  to  keep  Eras- 
mus at  his  side. 

But  Erasmus  was  a  restless  soul,  ambitious  of  fame, 
conscious  of  brilliant  capacities.  He  was  grateful  for 
his  deliverance,  but  the  position  of  dependent  on  a 
great  Church  dignitary  could  not  long  satisfy  so  as- 
piring a  spirit.  The  Bishop  was  kind,  but  dry,  cold, 
and,  as  appeared  afterwards,  inclined  to  suspicion. 
Restraint  of  any  kind  was  intolerable  to  Erasmus ;  he 
wished  to  see  what  the  world  was  which  religious  men 
denounced  as  something  so  terrible,  and  of  which  he 
was  as  yet  only  on  the  confines.  He  was  hungry  for 
knowledge  ;  he  had  not  been  satisfied  with  an  occa- 
sional residence  at  Lou  vain  ;  he  pined  for  further 
instruction,  and  more  intellectual  society.  From  his 
boyhood  he  had  set  his  heart  on  Paris  and  the  univer- 
sity there,  and  to  Paris  he  was  allowed  to  go. 


Lecture  II.  21 

It  is  uncertain  how  long  he  remained  with  the 
Bishop ;  several  years  are  unaccounted  for,  with  no 
light  on  them  except  from  tradition.  He  may  have 
been  twenty  when  he  left  the  convent.  In  1492  he 
was  ordained  priest  at  Utrecht ;  but  he  still  craved 
after  Paris,  and  society,  and  learning-.  The  Bishop 
consented,  not,  doubtless,  without  paternal  warnings 
against  temptations  within  and  without.  He  made 
him  an  allowance  rather  too  moderate  in  Erasmus's 
opinion  ;  other  old  men  besides  bishops  are  apt  to 
doubt  the  prudence  of  sending  the  young  ones  into 
the  world  with  too  much  money  in  their  pockets. 

Thus  furnished,  Erasmus  was  launched  on  to  the 
Parisian  ocean.  lie  still  wore  his  monastic  dress :  it 
was  a  condition  of  the  dispensation  which  released 
him  from  residence  ;  but  he  was  allowed  to  hide  the 
more  obvious  emblems  of  his  calamity  under  more 
ordinary  garments. 

At  the  University  of  Paris  the  students  lived  ap- 
parently as  they  now  do  at  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow, 
in  lodgings  of  their  own,  and  were  trusted  much  to 
their  own  prudence.  A  priest  of  twenty-five  coidd 
not  be  kept  in  leading  strings.  Erasmus's  fame  had 
gone  before  him  ;  his  poems  had  been  collected  and 
circulated  in  private  by  admiring  friends,  and  he 
found  himself  admitted  into  the  best  intellectual  soci- 
ety. His  acquaintance  seems  from  the  first  to  have 
been  more  secular  than  ecclesiastical:  like  seeks  like. 
He  was  witty,  and  he  sought  companions  among  the 
wits  of  the  period  ;  an  intimate  favourite,  if  not  the 
most  intimate,  was  Faustus  Anderlin,  the  poet-laure- 
ate, brilliant,  indolent,  but  infinitely  amusing.  Such 
a  circle  was  not  what  the  Bishop  would  have  preferred 
for  him,  but  he  was  to  find  his  own  place  and  to  make 
his  own  way.     He  was  free  for  the  first  time  in  his 


22  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

life,  like  a  fish  in  the  water,  and  now  in  his  proper 
element.  He  was  in  no  danger  from  vulgar  dissipa- 
tion ;  he  had  no  tastes  that  way  ;  but  he  had  an  infi- 
nite capacity  for  enjoyment,  and  he  got  as  much  of  it 
as  his  means  allowed.  Amusement  never  betrayed 
him  into  idleness.  His  craving  for  knowledge,  his 
determination  to  distinguish  himself,  remained,  then 
and  always,  his  overruling  passion.  But  it  is  clear 
also  that  his  habits  were  expensive  ;  he  liked  easy 
living,  he  saw  no  use  in  voluntary  and  unnecessary 
hardships.  He  went  to  plays,  he  went  to  parties,  and 
go  where  he  would  the  sparkle  of  his  genius  made 
him  welcome.  Naturally  his  patron's  economical  al- 
lowance was  soon  found  inadequate.  To  eke  out  his 
income  he  took  pupils,  and  his  reputation  for  talent 
provided  him  with  as  many  as  he  wanted.  What  he 
learnt  himself  he  taught  to  others.  Greek  was  then 
a  rare  acquisition,  and  was  frowned  on  by  the  author- 
ities ;  but  the  disapproval  of  authorities  sends  young 
ardent  students  hunting  after  the  forbidden.  Eras- 
mus learnt  for  himself  the  elements  of  Greek,  and 
instructed  his  pupils  in  it.  Young  and  old  came 
about  him  to  be  helped  over  the  threshold  of  the  new 
intellectual  world.  Booksellers  gave  him  small  sums 
for  his  writings  ;  men  of  the  highest  genius  —  such 
men  as  Shakespeare,  Cervantes,  Tasso  —  were  not 
above  accepting  presents  from  wealthy  admirers.  The 
purses  of  the  richer  students  were  freely  opened  to 
their  popular  teachers.  Ecclesiastics  were  going  out 
of  fashion  ;  Erasmus  laughed  at  monks  and  monk- 
dom,  and  was  applauded  and  encouraged. 

We  do  not  know  much  of  his  early  Paris  adven- 
tures, but  we  can  catch  glimpses  of  his  life  and  habits 
from  occasional  letters.  His  correspondents  seem 
quickly  to  have  seen  their  value,  and  preserved  them 
as  treasures  or  curiosities. 


Lecture  II.  23 

Here  is  a  picture  of  a  students'  lodging-house  in 
Paris  four  hundred  years  ago.  Human  nature  changes 
little,  and  landladies  and  chambermaids  were  much 
the  same  as  we  now  know  them. 

One  day  (he  says 2)  I  saw  the  mistress  of  the  house 
quarrelling  with  the  servant  girl  in  the  garden.  The 
trumpet  sounded,  the  tongues  clashed ;  the  battle  of 
words  swayed  to  and  fro  —  I  looking  on  from  a  win- 
dow in  the  salon.  The  girl  came  afterwards  to  my 
room  to  make  the  bed.  I  praised  her  courage  for 
standing  up  so  bravely.  I  said  I  wished  her  hands 
had  been  as  effective  as  her  tongue,  for  the  mistress 
was  an  athlete,  and  had  punched  the  girl's  head  with 
her  fists.  "  Have  you  no  nails  ? "  said  I.  She 
laughed.  "  I  would  fight  her  gladly  enough,"  said 
she,  "  if  I  was  only  strong  enough."  "  Victory  is  not 
always  to  the  strong,"  said  I ;  "  canning  may  do  some- 
thing." "  What  cunning?"  says  she.  "Tear  off  her 
false  curls,"  answer  I ;  "  and  when  the  curls  are  gone 
seize  hold  of  her  hair."  I  was  only  joking,  and 
thought  no  more  about  the  matter.  But  see  what 
came  of  it.  While  we  were  at  supper  in  runs  our 
host,  breathless  and  panting.  "Masters,  masters," 
he  cries,  "  come  and  see  a  bloody  piece  of  work."  We 
fly.  We  find  maid  and  mistress  struggling  on  the 
ground.  We  tear  them  apart.  Ringlets  lay  on  one 
side,  caps  on  the  other,  handfuls  of  hair  lying  littered 
about  the  floor.  After  we  had  returned  to  the  table, 
in  came  the  landlady  in  a  fury  to  tell  her  story.  "  I 
was  going  to  beat  the  creature,"  she  said,  "  when  she 
flew  at  rue  and  pulled  my  wig  off.  Then  she  scratched 
at  my  eyes.  Then,  as  you  see,  she  tore  my  hair. 
Never  was  a  girl  so  small  and  such  a  spitfire."  We 
consoled  her  as  well  as  we  could.  We  talked  of  the 
chances  of  mortal  things,  and  the  uncertainties  of 
war.  We  contrived  at  last  to  make  up  the  quarrel. 
I  congratulated  myself  that  I  was  not  suspected,  and 
so  escaped  the  lash  of  her  tongue. 

1  Erasmus  Clnistiano,  Ep.  xix. 


24  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Very  unbecoming'  in  a  student  in  priest's  orders 
aspiring-  to  fame  and  eminence.  Well,  here  is  a  letter 
more  in  character,  though  this  too  may  be  thought 
over-lively  for  the  future  editor  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. Laurentius  Valla  was  just  then  the  idol  of  the 
clever  young  men  at  Paris.  He  was  a  scholar  and  a 
rationalist.  He  had  ventured  to  touch  with  a  profane 
hand  ecclesiastical  legends  and  the  scholastic  philos- 
ophy. He  had  stirred  the  Scotists  in  their  sleep,  and 
had  provoked  them  to  answer  him  at  least  with  curses. 
Intellect  and  daring  were  on  Valla's  side.  Prudence 
and  orthodoxy  shook  their  heads  at  him.  A  young 
friend  of  Erasmus  had  shaken  his  among  the  rest, 
and  Erasmus  gave  him  a  good-natured  touch  of  his 
whip. 

Is  it  to  be  peace  or  war  between  us  ?  Will  you 
dare  to  speak  as  you  do  of  such  a  man  as  Valla  — 
Valla,  who  has  been  well  called  Suadce  medidla. 
And  you  to  call  him  a  chattering  magpie.  Oh  !  if  he 
was  alive  he  would  make  you  skip  for  it.  He  is  in  his 
grave  now,  and  you  think  that  dead  men  do  not  bite, 
and  that  you  can  say  what  you  please.  Not  quite.  1 
will  stand  as  his  champion,  and  this  cartel  is  my  chal- 
lenge. Apologise  or  look  to  your  weapons.  Expect 
no  mercy.  I  care  nothing  for  attacks  on  myself,  but 
I  will  stand  up  for  my  friend ;  and  you  will  have 
others  besides  me  to  deal  with.  I  have  no  love  for 
strife  :  the  worst  peace  is  better  than  war.  But  eat 
your  words  you  shall  and  must.  I  insist.  Instead  of 
chattering  pie,  you  shall  speak  of  Valla  as  the  Attic 
Muse.  And,  moreover,  you  shall  let  me  see  certain 
other  writings  of  your  own  which  you  keep  guard  over 
like  the  dragon  of  the  Hesperides.  See  them  I  must 
and  will.     It  is  no  jest.     I  am  not  to  be  trifled  with.1 

These  letters  give  us,  as  I  said,  certain  glimpses  of 
the  young  Erasmus,  smart  and  bright,  animated,  full 

1  Erasmus  to  Cornelius  Aurotinus,  Ep.  i. 


Lecture  II.  25 

of  hope  and  spirit.  Such  sensitive  natures  are  always 
in  extremes.  His  enemies  accused  him  of  irregulari- 
ties  in  his  Paris  life.  Even  his  friend  the  Bishop,  as 
we  shall  see,  was  uneasy  at  rumours  which  reached 
him.  Erasmus  admits  himself  that  he  was  not  im- 
maculate, though  vicious  he  never  was.  His  constitu- 
tion was  generally  delicate.  He  was  overtaken  by  a 
severe  illness.  Always,  even  to  the  last,  he  shuddered 
at  the  thought  of  death;  and,  as  men  will  do,  he 
looked  back  with  remorse  at  certain  features  of  his 
conduct  which  were  not  satisfactory  to  him.  His  ce- 
lebrity had  been  growing,  and  his  ambition  along  with 
it.  He  had  formed  projects  of  going  to  Italy,  and 
making  acquaintance  with  the  famous  Italian  scholars. 
Poverty  was  an  objection.  Illness  threatened  to  be 
another  and  more  fatal  one.  Here  is  a  desponding 
letter  to  an  English  friend  at  Paris. 

All  I  ask  for  is  leisure  to  live  wholly  to  God,  to  re- 
pent of  the  sins  of  my  foolish  youth,  to  study  Holy 
Scripture,  and  to  read  or  write  something  of  real 
value.  I  could  do  nothing  of  this  in  a  convent. 
Never  was  a  tenderer  plant.  I  could  not  bear  fasts 
and  vigils  when  I  was  at  my  best.  Even  here,  where 
I  am  so  well  cared  for,  I  fall  sick  ;  and  how  would  it 
be  with  me  if  I  was  in  the  cloister  ?  I  had  meant  to 
go  this  year  to  Italy  and  study  theology.  My  plan 
had  been  to  take  a  degree  at  Bologna,  go  to  Rome  for 
the  jubilee,  and  then  come  back  and  settle  myself  into 
some  regular  course  of  work.  It  cannot  be.  I  am 
too  weak  to  endure  long  journeys  in  hot  weather.  I 
should  want  money  too.  Life  in  Italy  is  expensive. 
The  degree  would  be  expensive,  and  his  Lordship  of 
Cambray  is  not  lavish  in  his  presents.  He  is  more 
kind  than  generous,  and  promises  more  than  he  per- 
forms. Perhaps  I  ought  not  to  expect  so  much, 
though  he  is  liberal  enough  to  some  others  that  I 
know.     I  must  just  do  the  best  that  I  can.1 

1  To  Arnoldus,  Ep.  Hi. 


26  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Erasmus,  one  fancies,  ought  to  have  been  more 
grateful  to  a  man  who  had  rescued  him  from  drown- 
ing. But  it  will  go  hard  with  most  of  us  if  we  are 
held  accountable  for  our  impatient  moods.  We  know 
too  little  of  the  relations  between  patron  and  client  to 
be  fair  judges.  Men  of  genius  are  apt  to  take  what 
they  can  get  as  a  mere  instalment  of  the  debts  which 
society  owes  to  them.  Erasmus,  if  he  was  thinking 
of  Rome  and  Bologna,  must  by  this  time  have  made  a 
reputation  for  himself  which  he  might  fancy  the 
Bishop  ought  to  have  recognized  with  more  liberal 
assistance.  The  Bishop  might  have  considered,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  his  protege  had  been  living  in  a 
society  which  a  priest  would  have  done  better  to  avoid, 
and  in  a  style  for  which  he  at  least  was  not  called  on 
to  furnish  means. 

The  illness,  however,  passed  off,  and  the  sun  shone 
again.  Erasmus's  pupil-room  was  always  well  at- 
tended, and  those  who  came  to  him  to  learn  became 
attached  friends.  We  find  among  them  men  of  high 
station  in  society  :  two  distinguished  young  English- 
men, Lord  Mountjoy's  eldest  son,  who  was  to  have  so 
large  an  influence  on  his  later  life,  and  one  of  the 
Greys,  younger  son  of  the  Marquis  of  Dorset  and 
uncle  of  the  Lady  Jane  that  was  to  be.  These  two  he 
liked  well,  as  he  had  good  reason  to  like  them.  Be- 
sides these,  either  as  a  pupil  or  an  acquaintance,  was 
an  elderly  Lord  of  Vere,  a  Flemish  grandee  —  Eras- 
mus calls  him  Prince  —  to  whom  he  claims  to  have 
done  important  service.  The  chief  interest  in  the 
Lord  of  Vere  was  a  gifted  and  beautiful  wife,  whom 
Erasmus  says  lie  ill-treated  and  occasionally  beat. 
"  Sene.v  ille  "  is  the  phrase  which  he  uses  in  writing  of 
the  Lord  of  Vere.  In  a  letter  to  young  Grey  he  uses 
the  same  words  for  another  old  man,  known  to  Grey, 


Lecture  II.  27 

who  had  been  also  a  pupil,  and  may  possibly  be  the 
same  person.  His  vivid  description  of  this  gentleman 
is  valuable  as  a  specimen  of  Erasmus's  style. 

No  poet  (he  says)  ever  invented  such  a  portent  as 
this  spiteful  little  wretch ;  setting-  up,  too,  for  religion 
and  pleading  conscience  to  cover  his  villainies.  I  had 
loved  him  as  a  brother  ;  but  when  he  found  that  he 
was  under  more  obligations  to  me  than  he  could  repay, 
he  told  lies  about  me  worse  than  ever  dropped  from 
the  mouth  of  Cerberus.  Sphinx,  Tisiphone,  Chimaera, 
Gorgon  were  angels  compared  to  this  monster,  and 
his  person  is  the  image  of  his  mind.  Imagine  a  pair 
of  sullen  eyes  under  shaggy  eyebrows,  a  forehead  of 
stone,  a  cheek  which  never  knew  a  blush,  a  nose  thick 
with  bristles  and  swollen  with  a  polypus,  hanging- 
jaws,  livid  lips,  a  voice  like  the  barking  of  a  dog,  his 
whole  face  branded,  like  a  felon's,  with  the  stamp  of 
deformity  to  warn  off  approach  as  we  tie  hay  to  the 
horns  of  a  shrewd  cow.  To  think  that  I  should  have 
taught  classics  to  such  a  creature  as  this  —  should 
have  wasted  so  much  time  and  pains  on  him,  when  I 
was  but  sowing  dragon's  teeth  which  have  sprung  up 
and  hurt  me.1 

Though  it  be  doubtful  who  the  person  was  thus  de- 
scribed, or  how  far  the  portrait  was  a  just  one,  such  a 
letter  lets  in  considerable  light  on  Erasmus  himself. 
His  language  when  he  was  angry  was  as  vigorous  as 
Voltaire's,  whom  intellectually  he  not  a  little  resem- 
bled. It  is  characteristic,  too,  that  the  next  letter  is 
strewed  with  passages  of  wise  and  judicious  advice  to 
Grey  about  his  own  reading,  telling  him  to  be  careful 
what  he  studied,  to  read  only  the  best  books,  to  avoid 
loose  literature  us  poison,  to  stick  to  Virgil,  Lucan, 
Cicero,  Lactantius,  Jerome,  Sallust,  and  Livy. 

Erasmus  despised  the  Lord  of  Vere,  and  disliked 

1  To  Thomas  Grey,  Ep.  xx.,  abridged. 


28  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

him  always.  But  this  did  not  prevent  him  from  ac- 
cepting an  invitation  to  visit  him  and  his  wife  at  his 
castle  at  Tournehem  in  Flanders.  It  was  in  the  win- 
ter of  1490.  He  was  now  thirty.  He  was  going  into 
Holland  to  see  whether  it  might  be  possible  to  recover 
some  part  of  the  wreckage  of  his  property.  He  was 
to  stay  at  the  castle  on  the  way  and  make  acquaintance 
with  the  lady  there,  the  fascinating  Anna  Bersala, 
whose  function  was  to  be  a  patroness  of  genius. 

He  had  a  friend  named  Jacob  Battus,  who  was  in 
some  way  connected  with  the  Vere  family.  This  Bat- 
tus became  afterwards  a  faithful  and  useful  follower 
of  Erasmus,  and  managed  his  money  affairs  for  him 
as  soon  as  he  had  got  any  money  to  manage.  Battus 
was  to  be  his  companion  on  this  northern  expedition. 
They  were  to  ride  —  the  time  of  year  February. 
Erasmus  tells  his  adventures  in  a  letter  to  Mountjoy, 
dated  "  Ex  Arce  Tournehemsi  "  :  — 

Here  I  am  (he  said),  arrived  safe,  spite  of  gods 
and  devils,  after  a  desperate  journey.  I  shall  think 
less  in  future  of  Hercules  and  Ulysses.  Juno,  who 
hates  poets,  called  in  ^Eolus  to  help  her,  and  Mollis 
beat  down  upon  us  with  hail,  and  snow,  and  rain,  and 
wind,  and  fog  —  now  one — now  all  together.  After 
the  storm  came  a  frost ;  snow  and  water  froze  into 
lumps  and  sheets  of  ice.  The  road  became  rough. 
The  mud  hardened  into  ridges.  The  trees  were 
coated  with  ice.  Some  were  split,  others  lost  their 
branches  from  the  weight  of  the  water  which  had 
frozen  upon  them.  We  rode  forward  as  we  could, 
our  horses  crunching  through  the  crust  at  every  step, 
and  cutting  their  fetlocks  as  if  with  glass.  Your 
friend  Erasmus  sate  bewildered  on  a  steed  as  aston- 
ished as  himself.  I  cursed  my  folly  for  entrusting 
my  life  and  my  learning  to  a  dumb  beast.  Just  when 
the  castle  came  in  sight  we  found  ourselves  on  a 
frozen   slope.     The  wind   had  risen  again  and  was 


Lecture  II.  29 

blowing  furiously.  I  got  off  and  slid  down  the  hill, 
guiding  myself  with  a  spiked  staff  which  acted  as 
rudder.  All  the  way  we  had  not  fallen  in  with  a 
single  traveller,  so  wild  was  the  weather,  and  for 
three  days  we  had  not  seen  the  sun.  One  comfort 
there  was  in  it,  that  we  were  in  no  fear  of  robbers, 
and  as  we  had  money  with  us  we  had  been  in  no 
small  uneasiness  about  them.  We  reached  the  castle 
at  last,  and  of  the  lady's  graciousness  I  cannot  say 
enough.  Were  I  to  say  all  that  I  thought  about  her 
you  would  call  me  extravagant.  No  description  which 
I  could  give  would  approach  the  reality.1 

Fine  ladies  have  had  an  attraction  for  men  of 
genius  from  Athanasius's  time  or  Gregory  VII.'s. 
Anna  Bersala  became  for  a  time  Erasmus's  tutelary 
spirit.  The  husband  was  at  the  castle,  and  apparently 
not  a  courteous  host ;  but  for  the  lady  herself  he  was 
running  over  with  enthusiasm. 

Never  (he  continues  to  Mountjoy)  did  Nature  pro- 
duce a  creature  more  modest,  kind,  or  good-hu- 
moured. Her  goodness  to  us  was  as  much  beyond 
our  deserts  as  the  old  man's  malignity  was  below  it. 
She,  for  whom  I  had  done  nothing,  loaded  me  with 
good  offices,  while  from  him,  who  was  under  so  many 
obligations  to  me,  I  met  with  nothing  but  imperti- 
nence. I  detest  such  ungrateful  persons,  and  am 
sorry  that  I  served  this  one  so  long. 

Very  sorry,  also,  am  I  that  I  should  have  come  so 
late  to  be  known  to  yourself.  Fortune  did  its  worst 
to  keep  us  apart  till  friendship  drew  us  together.  I 
write  this  from  the  castle  on  my  way  to  my  own 
country.  I  shall  soon  be  in  my  beloved  Paris  again. 
Meanwhile  believe  that  you  have  no  heartier  friend 
than  Erasmus. 

So  pleased  he  was  with  Tournehem  and  its  lady 
that  his    spirits  were  evidently  at  their   best   there, 

1  Ep.  vi.,  abridged. 


30  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

spite  of  the  weather  and  the  surly  host.  He  writes 
the  next  day  to  a  certain  Falco  who  was  to  have 
travelled  with  him,  but  had  been  left  behind.  Eras- 
mus gives  Falco  a  Mephistophelian  lecture  very  char- 
acteristic of  his  mocking  humour.1 

Vain  is  wisdom  if  a  man  is  not  wise  for  himself. 
Admire  learning  as  much  as  you  will,  but  fill  your 
pockets  as  well.  Always  have  a  good  opinion  of  your- 
self. Nothing  more  improves  the  appearance.  Care 
above  all  things  for  your  own  skin.  Let  all  else 
stand  second  to  your  own  advantage.  Choose  your 
friends  for  the  service  which  they  do  for  you.  Do 
not  seek  to  be  over-learned.  Study  moderately,  and 
love  ardently.  Be  liberal  of  your  words  and  careful 
of  jrour  money.  No  time  for  more.  I  must  hasten 
to  take  leave  of  my  princess. 

Two  days  were  spent  in  this  winter  paradise.  The 
lady  offered  him  a  present,  which  perhaps  for  the 
moment  he  declined  ;  but  he  left  his  friend  Battus 
behind  him  like  another  Gehazi  to  profit  by  her  liber- 
ality, while  he  himself  went  on  to  Holland,  where  he 
tried  in  vain  to  recover  his  stolen  inheritance.  Evi- 
dently at  this  time  he  was  in  distress  for  supplies. 
Impecuniousness  was  his  normal  condition.  His 
habits,  his  necessities,  real  or  imagined,  the  indul- 
gences which  were  required  for  his  weak  health  de- 
manded ampler  funds  than  were  doled  out  from  Cam- 
bray  or  came  in  from  pupils.  Beyond  this  he  had  no 
income  to  depend  on.  Scanty  driblets  came  in  from 
booksellers'  work.  Some  of  his  pupils  paid  him 
liberally,  especially  Mountjoy  and  Grey.  With  their 
help  he  kept  a  horse  and  a  servant,  and  was  clothed, 
and  lodged,  and  fed  on  a  tolerable  scale.  But  his 
notions  of  a  competence  were  always  as  of  something 

1  Up.  yii. 


Lecture  II  31 

more  than  he  had.  Books  for  one  thing  were  indis- 
pensable, and  the  days  had  not  come  of  cheap  edi- 
tions. 

The  visit  to  Holland  was  a  failure.  He  recovered 
nothing  there.  Perhaps  he  saw  his  patron  the  Bishop, 
and  probably  the  Bishop's  brother,  the  Abbot  of  St. 
Bertin,  who  was  always  good  to  him.  But  nothing 
came  of  the  journey  to  relieve  his  embarrassments 
save  the  acquaintance  with  the  Lady  of  Vere ;  and 
we  find  him  again  soon  after  in  Paris,  anxious  and 
uncomfortable.  It  was  not  in  him  to  sleep  on  the 
poor  scholar's  straw  pallet,  and  be  content  with  the 
crust  and  water-jug.  Of  all  the  virtues,  economy  was 
the  least  possible  to  Erasmus,  and  he  was,  doubtless, 
often  in  uncertainty  what  was  to  become  of  him.  He 
had  elastic  spirits,  happily  for  himself.  He  was  not 
one  of  those  who  whimper  to  the  universe  because 
Nature  had  given  him  a  plain  bun  to  eat  instead  of  a 
spiced  one.  But  after  his  disappointment  in  the  Low 
Countries  he  sank  into  despondency.  Like  Rousseau, 
he  fancied  himself  surrounded  with  enemies  and  be- 
trayed by  pretending  friends.  One  of  them,  a  cer- 
tain William  Gauden,  with  whom  he  had  been  a  boon 
companion,  had  written  a  letter  to  him  which  had 
been  especially  irritating,  and  his  answer  shows  him 
at  the  nadir  of  his  affairs,  entirely  wretched.1 

Why  do  you  add  by  your  reproaches  to  the  burden 
of  my  sorrows  ?  What  may  I  expect  from  my  ene- 
mies when  I  am  thus  treated  by  an  old  friend  like 
you  ?  What  right  have  you  to  find  fault  with  me  ? 
Someone,  you  say,  has  told  you  that  I  have  spoken 
lightly  of  you.  Why  do  you  believe  such  stories  ? 
Why  not  have  asked  me  frankly  what  I  meant  ?  I 
have  remonstrated  with   you  for  wasting   your  time 

1  Erasmus  Gulielrao  Gaudcno  suo,  Ep.  xv.,  abridged. 


32  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

and  producing  nothing  worthy  of  your  talents.  I 
have  urged  you  to  exert  yourself,  to  leave  trifles  to 
poorer  minds,  and  take  up  with  some  occupation  on  a 
level  with  your  abilities.  If  this  is  to  have  injured 
you,  I  confess  my  fault.  If  it  be  to  have  shown  more 
anxiety  for  your  reputation  than  you  have  felt  your- 
self, surely  anger  was  never  more  displaced.  It  is 
true  that  I  may  have  spoken  more  freely  to  you  than 
was  warranted  by  the  degree  of  our  acquaintance.  If 
you  think  this,  you  should  impute  the  cause  to  the 
wine,  in  which,  as  you  may  remember,  we  indulged 
too  frequently,  the  state  of  my  health  having  made 
me  at  that  time  relax  my  rules. 

But  you  will  say,  What  is  all  this  about  ?  what  do 
you  want  ?  who  is  doing  you  any  harm  ?  I  cannot 
explain  in  a  letter.  Ulysses  never  had  such  a  load 
laid  upon  him  as  I  have.  You  say  many  things  are 
reported  of  me  which  you  do  not  like  to  hear.  I  can 
keep  my  own  innocency.  I  cannot  help  what  men 
may  say  about  me.  I  am  alive.  Indeed,  I  hardly 
know  whether  I  am  alive,  for  I  am  in  utter  wretched- 
ness, worn  out  with  sorrow,  persecuted  by  enemies, 
deserted  by  my  friends,  and  made  Fortune's  football. 
Yet  I  have  committed  no  fault.  You  may  hardly  be- 
lieve it ;  you  may  think  I  am  the  old  Erasmus  with 
the  old  loose  extravagant  ways.  If  you  could  see  me 
you  would  know  better,  you  could  form  a  picture  of 
me  for  yourself.  I  am  no  fool  now,  no  diner  out,  no 
fond  lover  but  a  sad  afflicted  being  who  hates  him- 
self, who  hates  to  live,  and  yet  is  not  allowed  to  die  ; 
in  short,  a  miserable  wretch,  but  not  through  any 
fault  of  my  own.  May  God  change  my  state  for  the 
better  or  make  an  end  of  me.  Never  loved  I  man 
more  than  I  have  loved  you.  If  others  hate  me,  it  is 
no  wonder.  But  how  could  I  fear  to  lose  you  whom 
I  loved  so  dearly,  and  by  whom  I  supposed  that  I 
was  loved  in  return  ? 

O  William,  my  idol — -would  that  I  could  say  my 
constant  consolation !  Even  if  I  had  sinned  against 
our  friendship  by  any  scandalous  action,  you  shoidd 


Lecture  II  33 

rather  have  pitied  and  wept  for  me  than  been  angry. 
Now,  when  I  have  done  you  no  wrong'  at  all,  you  re- 
proach me,  you  abuse  me,  as  if  I  had  not  enemies 
enough  without  you  who  were  aiming  at  my  destruc- 
tion. You  have  seen  me  in  my  lighter  humours,  you 
know  how  devoted  I  was  in  a  certain  quarter.  I  am 
cold  as  snow  now.  Those  vulgar  fires  are  all  extinct. 
My  heart  is  yours,  and  only  yours.  Absence  has  only 
endeared  you  to  me.  You  never  envied  me  in  my 
prosperity  ;  why  turn  your  back  on  me  in  my  misfor- 
tunes ?  It  is  the  way,  I  know,  with  ordinary  men ; 
but  you,  I  thought,  were  not  an  ordinary  man.  You 
used  to  call  me  your  Pylades  or  Theseus ;  I  was  rather 
your  Orestes  or  Peirithous.  But  a  truce  to  com- 
plaints. This  only  I  beseech  you,  dear  William,  by 
our  ancient  friendship,  and  by  my  afflicted  fortunes, 
if  you  cannot  pity  me,  at  least  do  not  hate  me.  Do 
not  exasperate  the  wound  by  bitter  words  about  it. 
Grant  as  much  to  a  friend  who  has  never  injured  you 
as  to  an  enemy  whom  you  had  conquered  in  the  field. 
The  worse  my  case,  the  better  yours.  Commend  me 
to  your  father,  who  has  been  so  good  to  me,  and  to 
Jacob  Battus,  &c. 

This  letter  suggests  many  speculations.  Much  of 
it  is  unintelligible  for  want  of  knowledge  of  the 
things  and  persons  alluded  to.  Parts  of  it  seem  to 
justify  the  Bishop  of  Cambray's  suspicions  that  his 
young  friend  was  leading  a  relaxed  life  in  Paris.  One 
must  not  take  too  literally  the  passionate  expressions 
of  a  sensitive,  emotional,  and  evidently  at  the  time 
distracted  man  of  genius.  But  it  does  make  clear 
what  we  might  have  guessed  without  it,  that  the  great 
Erasmus  was  no  dry  pedant  or  professional  scholar 
and  theologian,  but  a  very  human  creature,  who  bled 
if  you  pricked  him,  loving,  hating,  enjoying,  suffering, 
and  occupied  with  many  things  besides  Greek  gram- 
mar and  the  classics.     With  his  poetry,  his  delicate 


34  Life   and  Letters   of  Erasmus. 

wit,  and  his  grey  eyes,  lie  was  as  fascinating  to  one 
sex  as  to  the  other.  He  may  have  had  his  love  affairs 
—  very  wrong  in  him,  as  he  was  a  priest,  but  not  the 
less  common,  not  the  less  natural.  In  another  letter, 
written  at  the  same  time,  there  is  an  allusion  to  a  cer- 
tain Antonia,  with  whom  he  had  been  in  some  kind 
of  passionate,  if  innocent,  relation.  His  habits  were 
confessedly  not  strict.  He  was  fond  of  pleasure,  and 
went  in  search  of  it,  perhaps,  into  society  which  a  se- 
vere moralist  might  disapprove.  But  original  writers, 
men  who  do  not  borrow  the  thoughts  of  other  authors, 
but  have  drawn  their  knowledge  fresh  from  life,  must 
have  seen  and  known  what  they  describe.  Even  the 
great  Saint  Epiphanius,  the  arch-denouncer  of  heresy, 
learnt  the  dangers  of  the  Gnostic  love  feasts  by  per- 
sonal experience  of  the  temptation.  Those  who  have 
written  works  which  endure  and  take  hold  upon 
mankind  have  themselves  struggled  in  the  cataracts. 
True  enough,  many  drown  in  these  adventures,  and 
Erasmus,  if  he  had  been  left  just  then  in  Paris,  might 
easily  have  been  one  of  them.  Happily,  at  that  mo- 
ment, his  friend  and  pupil  Mount  joy,  who  probably 
knew  his  circumstances,  and  wished  to  extricate  him, 
invited  Erasmus  to  accompany  him  to  London  and 
try  his  fortune  in  a  new  scene  at  an  English  univer- 
sity. The  adventure  was  less  rash  than  it  might 
seem.  Mount  joy,  as  will  be  seen,  had  distinguished 
friends  in  England,  eager  to  welcome  a  distinguished 
scholar.  Nowadays,  unfortunately,  a  foreign  teacher, 
however  eminent,  can  look  for  only  a  poor  reception 
at  an  English  school  or  college.  We  had  always  a 
reputation  for  coolness  to  strangers ;  we  were,  and  we 
are,  a  proud  and  insular-minded  race,  and  our  preju- 
dices were  stiffened  by  the  Reformation.  But  before 
that  great  convulsion,  educated  men  in  Europe  were 


Lecture  II.  35 

more  like  citizens  of  a  common  country  than  they 
have  ever  been  since.  Among  the  educated  there 
was  no  sharp  division  of  language  to  separate  mind 
from  mind.  Theologians,  statesmen,  lawyers,  physi- 
cians, men  of  letters  spoke  Latin  and  used  Latin  as 
their  common  tongue.  Erasmus,  in  his  letters,  and 
in  his  conversation  on  all  serious  subjects,  used  no- 
thing else.  Though  he  had  lived  in  every  country 
in  Europe  during  his  wandering  existence  —  Flan- 
ders, France,  Italy,  England,  Germany,  Switzerland ; 
though  for  the  common  purposes  of  life  he  must,  at 
least,  have  spoken  French  and  German  patois,  he  yet 
always  described  himself  as  unable  to  use  any  lan- 
guage but  Latin.  The  vernacular  idioms  were  only 
beginning  to  shape  themselves  into  intellectual  instru- 
ments, and  Latin  was  the  universal  tongue  in  which 
men  of  intelligence  exchanged  their  thoughts.  Lan- 
guage would,  therefore,  be  no  difficulty.  And  in 
England  also,  as  everywhere  else  in  Europe,  there 
was  a  growing  thirst  for  knowledge :  the  long  night 
of  narrow  ecclesiasticism  was  drawing  to  an  end ;  the 
old  stars  of  learning,  the  scholastic  divines,  had  ceased 
to  interest ;  the  saints  and  their  biographies  were  fad- 
ing into  dreams ;  the  shell  was  bursting ;  the  dawn 
was  drawing  on  of  a  new  age,  when,  as  Newman  said 
of  our  own  time,  the  minds  of  men  were  demanding 
something  deeper  and  truer  than  had  satisfied  preced- 
ing centuries.  The  movement  was  most  active  in  the 
young.  Erasmus  was  the  voice  of  the  coining  era, 
and  Mountj oy  could  hold  out  a  promise  to  him  of 
meeting  kindred  spirits  like  his  own  who  would  re- 
ceive him  with  enthusiasm. 

The  intellect  of  Erasmus  was  not  the  intellect  of  a 
philosopher.  It  was  like  Voltaire's  or  Lueian's,  lucid, 
clear,  sparkling,   above   all   things    witty ;    and    wit, 


36  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

which  is  the  rarest  of  qualities,  is  the  surest  of  appre- 
ciation. He  was  a  classical  scholar  when  classical 
scholars  were  few  and  in  eager  demand.  The  classics 
were  then  the  novelty,  the  recovering  and  returning 
voice  of  life  and  truth  when  theology  had  grown  dry 
and  threadbare  —  "  Literse  humaniores,"  as  they  have 
ever  since  been  called,  the  very  name  and  the  compar- 
ative degree  indicating  the  opening  of  the  conflict 
between  human  culture  and  mediaeval  scholasticism. 

To  England,  therefore,  Erasmus  went,  conducted 
by  the  young  Lord  Mountjoy,  turning  his  back  upon 
his  enemies,  real  or  imagined,  in  Paris,  and  his  finan- 
cial confusions,  which  were  not  imaginary.  It  must 
have  been  a  welcome  change  to  him,  the  turning  over 
a  fresh  page  of  life. 

The  editors  of  his  letters  have  been  unable,  after 
all  the  pains  that  they  have  taken  with  them,  to  fix 
accurately  the  dates  at  which  they  were  written.  He 
was  himself  careless  of  such  things,  especially  in  his 
earlier  years,  when  he  could  not  foresee  the  interest 
which  would  one  day  attach  to  them.  As  they  are 
now  arranged,  they  assign  him  movements  contradic- 
tory and  often  impossible.  One  day  he  is  represented 
as  at  Tournehem,  the  next  in  Paris,  the  next  in  Lon- 
don or  Oxford;  then  in  Paris  once  more,  and  then 
back  aoain  in  London.  Sometimes  a  whole  decade 
of  years  is  dropped  out  or  added,  and  with  the  most 
patient  efforts  the  confusion  can  be  but  partially 
disentangled.  Something,  however,  can  be  done  to 
arrange  them,  at  least  with  an  approach  to  correct- 
ness. Special  dates  can  be  fixed  from  independent 
sources  when  events  are  alluded  to  as  having  hap- 
pened, or  happening,  the  dates  of  which  we  know.  I 
shall  do  the  best  that  I  can  with  it ;  and  to  start  with, 
it  may  be  taken  as  certain  that  Erasmus  was  in  Lon- 
don at  the  beginning  of  December,  1497. 


LECTURE  III. 

In  introducing  Erasmus  to  England  at  the  close  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  I  must  say  a  few  words  on  the 
condition  of  the  country  which  he  was  about  to  visit. 
Henry  VII.,  as  you  know,  was  on  the  throne.  Of 
him  I  shall  say  but  little.  Historians  make  too  much 
of  kings.  They  fill  their  pages  with  reflections  on 
their  policy,  or  with  anecdotes  about  their  personal 
character  and  actions,  chiefly  lies.  Voltaire  says  there 
is  an  indescribable  pleasure  in  speaking  evil  of  dead 
kings,  because  one  cannot  speak  evil  of  them  while 
they  are  alive  for  fear  of  one's  ears.  Henry  VII.  was 
not  a  sovereign  on  whom  it  is  either  just  or  possible 
to  pass  summary  sentence.  Rhadamanthus  himself 
would  have  had  to  pause.  Nor  does  it  much  matter 
what  we  think  of  him.  The  thing  of  moment  to  our- 
selves is  the  state  of  England,  and  the  social  and 
moral  character  of  the  English  people,  when  they  had 
the  first  of  the  Tudors  to  rule  over  them. 

The  long  and  desperate  war  of  succession  had  ended 
on  Bosworth  field.  In  that  furious  struggle  half  the 
English  peerage  had  been  destroyed,  and  along  with 
them  had  disappeared  the  whole  fabric  of  the  old  aristo- 
cratically governed  England.  The  heads  of  the  noble 
families  had  ruled  hitherto  in  their  various  districts 
as  feudal  princes.  The  Wars  of  the  Roses  accom- 
plished in  this  country  what  the  Wars  of  the  League 
accomplished  in  France. 

The  remnant  of  the  dukes,  and  earls,  and  barons 


38  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

had  to  subside  into  the  position  of  subjects,  and  take 
their  places  in  reality  as  well  as  name  as  the  king's 
lieges.  The  nation  had  enough  of  fighting,  and  had 
to  set  its  house  in  order.  A  glance  at  Henry  VII. 's 
statutes  shows  that  violence  during  the  long  disorders 
had  taken  the  place  of  law.  The  strong  had  oppressed 
the  weak.  Tenants  had  been  driven  from  their  farms. 
Courts  of  Justice  had  been  overborne.  The  highways 
were  infested  with  armed  ruffians.  Traders  had  learnt 
dishonesty  :  sold  articles  which  were  not  what  they 
pretended  to  be,  and  used  false  weights  and  measures. 
With  the  accession  of  the  Tudors,  honest  men  in  all 
ranks  of  society  seem  to  have  set  themselves  wisely  to 
work  to  repair  the  mischief. 

With  the  diminution  and  changed  position  of  the 
peerage,  the  middle  classes  had  come  to  the  front, 
showing  superior  equality.  Commoners,  canon  law- 
yers who  had  capacity  were  called  into  the  Council  of 
State.  A  serious  tone  prevailed  in  the  houses  of  the 
gentry.  Erasmus  speaks  with  astonishment  of  the 
conversations  which  he  heard  at  the  tables  of  leading 
laymen,  in  contrast  with  the  ribaldry  of  the  monastic 
refectories.  Archbishop  Morton,  Cardinal  and  Chan- 
cellor, obtained  a  commission  from  the  Pope  to  visit, 
and,  if  possible,  reform  the  corruptions  of  the  religious 
houses.  One  curious  evidence  can  still  be  seen  of  the 
energy  of  the  time  in  the  number  and  beauty  of  the 
churches  built  and  repaired  all  over  the  kingdom, 
which  show  the  earnestness  with  which  the  English 
nation  set  itself  to  reconstruct  society  after  the  shock 
which  it  had  s:one  through.  Morton  was  still  Primate 
when  Erasmus  first  came  over.  W^arham,  who  suc- 
ceeded him  both  as  Archbishop  and  Chancellor,  was 
Master  of  the  Rolls. 

So   then  we  are    in   London   in    December,  1497. 


Lecture  HI.  39 

Erasmus  had  then  been  some  weeks  in  England. 
Mount  joy  had  introduced  him  to  Thomas  More,  then 
a  lad  of  twenty ;  to  Colet,  afterwards  the  famous 
Dean  of  St.  Paul's,  who  was  born  in  the  same  year 
with  Erasmus  himself  ;  to  Grocyn,  who  was  teaching 
the  rudiments  of  Greek  at  Oxford,  no  grammars  or 
dictionaries  yet  within  reach,  under  much  opposition 
and  obloquy  from  old-fashioned  conservatism.  Pie  had 
introduced  his  friend  also  to  various  other  persons,  to 
Mountjoy's  own  family  among  them.  Obviously,  the 
young  stranger  had  been  kindly  received,  while  Eras- 
mus himself  was  charmed  with  everybody  and  every- 
thing. He  found  the  country  beautiful,  the  climate 
(though  it  was  midwinter)  delightful,  and  the  society 
the  most  delightful  of  all. 

The  air  (he  writes)  is  soft  and  delicious.  The  men 
are  sensible  and  intelligent.  Many  of  them  are  even 
learned,  and  not  superficially  either.  They  know  their 
classics,  and  so  accurately  that  I  have  lost  little  in  not 
going  to  Italy.  When  Colet  speaks  I  might  be  listen- 
ing to  Plato.  Linacre  [Henry  VIIL's  famous  physi- 
cian afterwards]  is  as  deep  and  acute  a  thinker  as  I 
have  ever  met  with.  Grocyn  is  a  mine  of  knowledge, 
and  Nature  never  formed  a  sweeter  and  happier  dispo- 
sition than  that  of  Thomas  More.  The  number  of 
young  men  who  are  studying  ancient  literature  here  is 
astonishing.1 


*»• 


Mountj oy  had  kept  his  word.  The  men  whom  Eras- 
mus mentions  grew  to  be  the  most  eminent  of  their 
time.  What  he  saw  was  as  instructive  as  it  was  sur- 
prising. His  letters  being  dated  only  by  the  years, 
and  that  often  incorrectly,  it  is  impossible  to  follow  his 
movements,  and  there  seems  to  have  been  no  hurry  in 
introducing   him  at  Oxford  ;   but  Colet  and  Grocyn 

1  To  Robert  Fisher,  Ep.  xiv. 


40  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

were  both  lecturing  before  the  University,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1498  he  was  taken  down  there,  perhaps  to 
stay  if  arrangements  could  be  made  for  him,  at  any 
rate  to  see  and  be  seen.  Depending  entirely  as  we  do 
on  irregular  fragments  of  information,  we  have  to  be 
content  with  occasional  pictures  which  accident  has 
preserved. 

Here  is  a  picture  of  a  scene  at  Oxford  which  he 
drew  for  a  friend  at  Paris.1  He  was  the  guest  of 
Richard  Charnock,  Prior  of  St.  Mary's  College,  which 
stood  on  the  site  of  what  is  now  called  Frewin  Hall. 
Charnock  had  invited  a  party  to  meet  him.  He  de- 
scribes the  scene  for  us  :  — 

Would  that  you  could  have  been  present  at  our 
symposium.  The  guests  were  well  selected,  time  and 
place  suitable.  Epicurus  and  Pythagoras  would  have 
been  equally  delighted.  You  will  ask  how  our  party 
was  composed.  Listen,  and  be  sorry  that  you  were 
not  one  of  us.  First  there  was  the  Prior,  Richard 
Charnock,  and  a  modest  learned  divine  who  had  the 
same  day  preached  a  Latin  sermon.  Next  him  was 
your  clever  acquaintance,  Philip.  Colet  was  in  the 
chair,  on  his  right  the  Prior,  on  his  left  a  young  theo- 
logian, to  whom  I  sate  next,  with  Philip  opposite,  and 
there  were  several  others  besides.  [One  wonders 
whether  Wolsey  was  perhaps  one  of  them.]  We 
talked  over  our  wine,  but  not  about  our  wine.  We 
discoursed  on  many  subjects.  Among  the  rest  we 
talked  about  Cain.  Colet  said  that  Cain's  fault  had 
been  want  of  trust  in  his  Creator  :  Cain  had  trusted 
to  his  own  strength,  and  had  gone  to  work  upon  the 
soil,  while  Abel  fed  his  sheep,  and  was  content  with 
what  the  earth  gave  him  of  its  own  accord.  We  dis- 
agreed. The  theologian  was  syllogistic,  I  was  rheto- 
rical ;  but  Colet  beat  us  all  down.  He  spoke  with  a 
sacred  fury.     He  was  sublime  and  as  if  inspired. 

1  Joamii  Sixtino,  Ep.  xliv.,  abridged. 


Lecture  III.  41 

The  conversation  became  too  serious  at  last  for  a 
social  gathering,  so  I  took  on  myself  the  part  of  a 
poet,  and  entertained  the  company  with  a  story,  which 
I  asked  them  to  believe  to  be  true.  I  said  I  had 
found  it  in  an  ancient  moth-eaten  manuscript,  of 
which  only  a  page  or  two  were  legible.  These  pages, 
however,  happily  referred  to  the  subject  of  which  we 
were  speaking. 

Cain  was  industrious,  but  he  was  also  avaricious. 
He  had  heard  his  parents  say  that  splendid  wheat 
crops  grew  in  the  garden  from  which  they  had  been 
expelled.  The  stalks  and  ears  reached  to  their 
shoulders,  and  there  was  not  a  tare  among  them,  or 
thorn,  or  thistle.  Cain  turned  it  over  in  his  mind. 
He  contrasted  this  wheat  of  Paradise  with  the  scanty 
crop  which  was  all  that  he  could  raise  with  his  plough. 
He  addressed  himself  to  the  angel  at  the  gate,  and 
begged  for  a  few  grains  from  the  crop  in  the  garden. 
God,  he  said,  does  not  look  nicely  into  such  things, 
and  if  He  noticed  it  He  would  not  be  angry.  He  had 
only  forbidden  the  eating  of  certain  apples.  You 
should  not  be  too  hard  a  sentry.  You  may  even  dis- 
please God  by  over-scruple ;  on  such  an  occasion  as 
this  He  might  very  likely  wish  to  be  deceived.  He 
would  sooner  see  His  creatures  careful  and  industrious 
than  slothful  and  negligent.  This  is  no  pleasant  office 
of  yours.  From  having  been  an  angel  you  have  been 
set  as  a  watchman  at  a  gate,  to  keep  us  poor  lost  crea- 
tures out  of  our  old  home.  You  are  used,  in  fact,  as 
we  use  our  dogs.  We  are  miserable  enough,  but  I 
think  you  are  even  worse  off  than  we  are.  We  have 
been  turned  out  of  Paradise  because  wc  had  too  much 
inclination  for  a  pleasant  fruit  that  grew  there ;  but 
you  have  been  turned  out  of  Heaven  to  keep  us  from 
going  near  it,  and  you  are  not  in  Paradise  yourself 
either.  We  can  go  where  we  please  over  the  rest  of 
the  world,  and  a  charming  world  it  is.  Thousands  of 
trees  grow  in  it  whose  names  we  have  not  had  time  to 
learn  ;  we  have  beautiful  shady  groves,  cascades  foam- 
ing down  among  glens  and  rocks,  limpid  rivers  glid- 


42  Life  and  Letters,  of  Erasmus. 

ing  between  grassy  banks,  lofty  mountains,  deep  val- 
leys, and  seas  teeming  with  living  things.  Earth,  too, 
doubtless  holds  treasures  in  her  entrails,  which  I  and 
those  who  come  after  me  will  find  a  way  to  extract, 
and  we  have  golden  apples,  figs,  fruits  of  all  varieties. 
If  we  might  live  in  it  for  ever  we  should  not  much 
miss  Paradise.  We  are  sick  sometimes  and  in  pain, 
but  with  experience  we  shall  discover  remedies.  I 
have  myself  found  herbs  already  with  rare  virtues, 
and  it  may  be  that  we  shall  learn  in  the  end  how  to 
baffle  death  itself.  I  for  one  will  never  rest  from 
searching.  There  is  no  difficulty  which  may  not  be 
conquered  by  obstinate  determination.  We  have  lost 
a  single  garden,  and  in  exchange  we  have  the  wide 
earth  to  enjoy.  You  can  enjoy  neither  Heaven  nor 
Paradise,  nor  earth  either.  You  have  to  stay  fixed  at 
these  gates,  waving  your  sword  like  a  weathercock. 
If  you  are  wise  you  will  take  our  side.  Give  us  what 
will  cost  you  nothing,  and  accept  in  return  what  shall 
be  common  property  to  you  and  to  us.  We  are  miser- 
able, but  so  are  you ;  we  are  shut  out  from  Eden,  so 
are  you ;  we  are  damned,  you  are  worse  damned. 

The  wickedest  of  mortals  and  the  most  ingenious  of 
orators  gained  his  abominable  purpose.  The  angel 
gave  Cain  the  wheat  grains.  He  sowed  them,  and 
received  them  back  with  increase.  He  sowed  again 
and  gained  more,  and  so  from  harvest  to  harvest. 
God  looked  down  at  last,  and  was  wroth.  The  young 
thief,  he  said,  desires  to  toil  and  sweat.  He  shall  not 
be  disappointed  of  his  wish.  An  army  of  ants  and 
caterpillars  was  let  loose  over  his  cornfields,  with  mag- 
gots, and  lice,  and  locusts,  to  consume  and  devour. 
Great  storms  of  rain  came  out  of  the  sky,  and  wind 
that  snapped  the  stalks,  though  they  were  strong  as 
branches  of  oak.  The  angel  was  transformed  into  a 
man  because  he  had  been  a  friend  of  man.  Cain  tried 
to  appease  God  by  offering  the  fruits  of  the  soil  to 
Him  upon  an  altar,  but  the  smoke  refused  to  ascend. 
He  recognised  the  anger  of  God,  and  fell  into  despair. 


Lecture  III  43 

The  story  of  the  symposium  at  St.  Mary's  College 
goes  no  further,  but  the  rest  of  the  party,  it  is  likely, 
did  not  think  the  less  of  the  singular  stranger  that 
had  come  among  them.  The  legend  which  he  told 
appears  on  the  face  of  it  to  have  been  extempore. 
Erasmus  could  not  have  foreseen  the  conversation 
which  led  to  it,  and  the  improvising  power  is  a  new 
feature  in  his  character.  I  have  met  with  nothing  of 
the  same  kind  in  his  other  writings,  nor  can  it  have 
been  a  faculty  which  he  cared  to  exercise.  As  it 
stands  it  was  a  remarkable  exhibition  of  high  poetical 
genius,  and  explains  the  fascination  which  his  talk  is 
universally  allowed  to  have  possessed.  Colet,  More, 
Grocyn,  Charnock,  Linacre  remained  ever  after  his 
most  devoted  friends. 

It  is  uncertain  how  long  Erasmus  remained  at 
Oxford  on  this  occasion.  He  perhaps  went  and  came. 
Certainly  he  neither  sought  nor  accepted  any  perma- 
nent situation  there.  His  time  appears  to  have  been 
at  his  own  disposal.  He  was  sociable  and  curious. 
He  had  come  to  make  acquaintance  with  England 
and  the  English  people,  perhaps  at  the  expense  of 
Mount  joy,  and  he  did  not  neglect  his  opportunities. 
A  letter  to  Colet,  written  from  Oxford,  belongs  to 
this  period.  Colet  was  lecturing  just  then  before  the 
University  on  St.  Paul's  Epistles.  His  lecture-room 
was  crowded  with  old  and  young.  It  seems  that  he 
had  conveyed  to  Erasmus  his  high  appreciation  of  his 
genius,  and  a  desire  to  improve  his  acquaintance  with 
him.  Erasmus  answers  that  it  was  pleasant  laudari 
a  laudato.  He  valued  the  good  opinion  of  Colet 
above  the  applause  of  the  Roman  Forum.  But  he 
felt  obliged  to  say  that  Colet  thought  better  of  him 
than  he  deserved.  He  would  not  allow  a  friend  to  be 
imposed  on  by  false  wares,  and  he  proceeds  to  give 
an  honest  account  of  himself. 


44  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

You  will  find  me  (he  said)  a  man  of  small  fortune 
or  of  none,  and  with  no  ambition  to  acquire  one  .  .  . 
but  a  man,  too,  who  craves  for  friendship,  with  a 
slight  knowledge  of  literature,  and  burning  for  more 
—  a  man  who  reverences  goodness  in  others,  but  with 
none  to  boast  of  of  his  own ;  simple,  frank,  open, 
without  pretence  and  without  concealment ;  of  mod- 
erate ability,  but  what  he  has  good  of  its  kind ;  not 
given  to  much  speech  —  in  short,  one  from  whom  you 
must  look  for  nothing  but  goodwill.  .  .  .  This  Eng- 
land of  yours  has  many  charms  for  me,  most  of  all 
because  it  contains  so  many  men  of  high  intelligence, 
of  whom  I  count  yourself  to  be  the  chief.  You  are  a 
man  who,  if  he  was  not  virtuous,  would  be  admired 
for  his  genius,  and  if  he  had  no  genius  would  be  ven- 
erated for  his  piety.1 

There  is  another  note,2  written  also  from  Oxford, 
to  Mountjoy,  who  had  been  anxious  to  know  how  he 
was  getting  on  there. 

I  do  better  every  day  (he  says).  I  am  delighted 
with  Colet  and  Charnock.  Everything  is  so  much 
brighter  than  I  looked  for.  Nothing  could  be  less 
auspicious  than  my  arrival  in  England.  I  have 
thrown  off  the  lassitude  with  which  you  used  to  find 
me  oppressed.  I  am  now  happier  every  day.  You 
promised  to  join  me  here.  Doubtless  some  good 
reason  has  kept  you  away.  Send  me  some  money 
under  cover,  and  sealed  with  your  ring.  I  am  in 
debt  to  the  Prior,  who  has  been  so  kind  and  liberal 
that  I  must  not  encroach  on  his  generosity. 

So  far  we  see  Erasmus  on  his  serious  side  in  this 
English  visit ;  amiable  he  was  always,  but  he  was  a 
versatile  mortal,  given  to  levity  when  he  could  ven- 
ture upon  it.     He  had  seen  other  aspects  of  English 

1  Ep.  xli. 

2  Ep.  xlii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  III.  45 

life  besides  what  he  found  at  Oxford,  as  at  Oxford  he 
had  found  acquaintances  who  invited  him  to  their 
country  houses.  A  letter  to  Faustus  Anderlin  at 
Paris  gives  a  description  of  some  of  these  experiences. 
Erasmus  was  an  airy  being,  and  enjoyed  other  things 
besides  learning  and  learned  society.  He  writes  to 
Anderlin  : 1  — 

Your  friend  Erasmus  gets  on  well  in  England.  He 
can  make  a  show  in  the  hunting  field.  He  is  a  fair 
horseman,  and  understands  how  to  make  his  way.  He 
can  make  a  tolerable  bow,  and  can  smile  graciously 
whether  he  means  it  or  not.  If  you  are  a  wise  man 
you  will  cross  the  Channel  yourself.  A  witty  gentle- 
man like  you  ought  not  to  waste  his  life  among  those 
French  mercies.  If  you  knew  the  charms  of  this 
country  your  ankles  would  be  winged,  or  if  the  gout 
was  in  your  feet  you  would  wish  yourself  Daedalus. 

To  mention  but  a  single  attraction,  the  English 
girls  are  divinely  pretty.  Soft,  pleasant,  gentle,  and 
charming  as  the  Muses.  They  have  one  custom  which 
cannot  be  too  much  admired.  When  you  go  any- 
where on  a  visit  the  girls  all  kiss  you.  They  kiss  you 
when  you  arrive.  They  kiss  you  when  you  go  away  ; 
and  they  kiss  you  again  when  you  return.  Go  where 
you  will,  it  is  all  kisses  ;  and,  my  dear  Faustus,  if  you 
had  once  tasted  how  soft  and  fragrant  those  lips  are, 
you  would  wish  to  spend  your  life  here. 

On  this  first  visit  of  Erasmus  to  England  there  is 
no  mention  of  Cambridge.  His  acquaintance  lay 
chiefly  among  members  of  our  own  University.  There 
was  evidently,  however,  much  curiosity  to  see  him, 
and  if  he  was  treated  as  pleasantly  as  appears  in  his 
letter  to  Faustus  he  must  have  had  a  good  time. 
From  the  Mountjoy  family  he  met  with  special  kind- 
ness.    The  Mountjoys  had  a  country  house  near  El- 

i  Ep.  lxv. 


46  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

thain,  where  there  was  a  royal  palace  to  which  the 
princes  and  princesses  were  occasionally  sent  for 
change  of  air.  Erasmus  on  one  occasion1  was  a  guest 
of  Lord  Mount  joy.  Young  Thomas  More  had  been 
invited  to  meet  him,  and  More  one  day  carried  him  to 
the  palace  and  introduced  him  to  the  royal  party. 
Neither  King  nor  Queen  was  there,  nor  the  Prince  of 
Wales,  Arthur.  But  he  saw  the  young  Henry,  then 
a  boy  of  nine,  with  whose  regal  bearing,  at  once  lofty 
and  gentle,  he  was  greatly  struck.  On  Henry's  right 
hand  was  his  sister  Margaret,  afterwards  Queen  of 
Scotland ;  Mary,  a  little  one  of  three,  who  was  to  be 
Queen  of  France  and  Duchess  of  Suffolk ;  and  Ecl- 
mond,  the  youngest,  who  was  a  child  in  arms. 

Erasmus  says  that  More  presented  Henry  with 
some  complimentary  effusion  which  had  been  prepared 
for  the  occasion.  He  had  himself  come  unprovided, 
not  having  been  informed  of  the  honour  intended  for 
him.  They  stayed  to  dine  at  the  palace.  In  the 
course  of  dinner  Henry,  who  had  heard  the  fame  of 
his  visitor's  brilliancy,  sent  him  a  note,  challenging 
him,  as  he  calls  it,  to  give  them  an  exhibition  of  it. 

He  could  not  venture  to  improvise  in  so  high  a 
presence.  He  sate  silent,  but  on  his  return  home 
composed  a  laudatory  poem  on  Henry  VII.,  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  their  children,  which  was  forwarded 
and  well  received. 

Nothing  further  came  of  this  introduction  at  the 
time.  But  Henry  never  forgot  Erasmus.  Long  af- 
ter, he  alluded  to  the  visit  to  Eltham  when  inviting 
him  back  to  England.  The  old  king  never  seems  to 
have  noticed  him  at  all,  or  to  have  thought  of  him 
merely  as  a  vagrant  man  of  genius,  not  necessary  to 
be  encouraged.     Old  men  do  not  usually  appreciate 

1  Apparently  on  a  second  visit  to  England  in  1501. 


Lecture  III.  47 

brilliant  young  poets  with  new  ideas.  Nothing  was 
then  known  about  Erasmus  which  could  induce  a  pru- 
dent, careful  father  to  consent  to  place  him  about  his 
children,  if  that  had  been  the  object. 

Erasmus,  perhaps,  found  himself  in  high  quarters 
regarded  as  a  brilliant  adventurer,  and  did  not  like  it. 
He  had  met  with  much  kindness  and  much  generosity, 
but  he  certainly  saw  no  prospect  of  making  a  position 
in  England  answering  to  his  merits  and  expectations. 
Freedom  was  the  breath  of  his  life  :  if  not  the  freedom 
of  a  master,  then  the  freedom  of  a  beggar.  He  was  a 
wild  bird,  and  would  not  sing  in  a  cage.  He  was  too 
proud  to  flatter  his  way  to  promotion  in  bishops'  pala- 
ces or  in  the  courts  of  princes.  Even  in  the  universi- 
ties he  would  never  have  consented  to  begin  in  an  in- 
ferior position,  while  as  yet  he  had  done  nothing  with 
his  talents  to  entitle  him  to  a  post  of  distinction.  His 
letters  to  Anderlin  show  that  he  was  a  creature  of 
whom  official  dignitaries  might  reasonably  be  shy. 
We  don't  know  exactly  how  it  was,  but  after  a  stay  of 
some  months  Erasmus  concluded  that  he  could  do  bet- 
ter for  himself  at  Paris,  where  he  was  known  and  had 
a  position.  There  is  no  kind  of  person  more  difficult 
to  provide  for  than  a  man  of  genius.  He  will  not 
work  in  harness ;  he  will  not  undertake  work  which 
he  does  not  like.  His  silent  theory  .about  himself  is 
that  he  must  be  left  to  do  as  he  pleases,  and  to  be  pro- 
vided somehow  with  a  sufficient  income  to  live  in  in- 
dependent comfort.  To  this  it  had  to  come  with 
Erasmus  eventually.  Ruling  powers  saw  his  value  at 
last,  and  took  him  on  his  own  terms.  Meanwhile  his 
Paris  difficulties  were  provided  for.  They  were 
chiefly  financial,  and  his  English  friends  had  made 
him  handsome  presents  of  money.  His  mind  was 
fixed  upon  the  work  which  lie  intended  to  do.     He 


48  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

found  that  lie  could  do  it  better  in  his  old  quarters, 
and  Mountjoy,  with  much  regret,  consented  to  part 
with  him.  Neither  then  nor  at  any  time  has  official 
England  encouraged  novelties.  Even  Colet,  who  was 
trying  with  his  lectures  to  improve  theology,  was 
having  a  hard  fight  for  it. 

Theology  (Erasmus  wrote  to  Colet  before  his  de- 
parture) is  the  mother  of  sciences.  But  nowadays 
the  good  and  the  wise  keep  clear  of  it,  and  leave  the 
field  to  the  dull  and  sordid,  who  think  themselves 
omniscient.  You  have  taken  arms  against  these  peo- 
ple. You  are  trying  to  bring  back  the  Christianity 
of  the  Apostles,  and  clear  away  the  thorns  and  briars 
with  which  it  is  overgrown ;  a  noble  undertaking. 
You  will  find  the  task  a  hard  one,  but  you  will  suc- 
ceed, and  will  not  regard  the  clamours  of  fools.  You 
will  not  stand  alone.  The  crowded  rooms  where  you 
have  been  lecturing  will  have  shown  you  how  many 
are  on  your  side. 

Colet  sarcastically  answered  that  one  of  the  wisest 
of  the  Bench  of  Bishops  had  censured  his  lectures  as 
useless  and  mischievous. 

The  hardest  part  of  the  fighting  had  to  be  done  by 
Erasmus  himself.  He  .hated  mediaeval  theology  as 
heartily  as  Colet.  But  England,  at  least  for  the 
moment,  was  not  the  place  for  him.  He  went,  and  at 
his  departure  he  met  with  a  misadventure  which  his 
friends  feared  would  disgust  him  with  England  for 
ever.  In  money  which  they  had  contributed  among 
them  he  was  to  take  back  what  would  amount  in 
modern  currency  to  two  hundred  pounds.  An  Eng- 
lish statute  forbade  the  exportation  of  specie,  either 
gold  or  silver.  Property  transported  abroad  must  go 
in  the  shape  of  English  goods  for  the  encouragement 
of  English  industries,     More,  who  had  mistaken  the 


Lecture  III.  49 

law,  informed  him  that  the  prohibition  extended  only 
to  English  coin.  He  had  changed  his  pounds  into 
French  currency,  and  supposed  himself  safe.  It  was 
seized  and  confiscated  at  the  Dover  custom-house,  and 
Erasmus  was  sent  on  to  Paris  absolutely  penniless. 
It  was  useless  to  appeal  to  the  king,  for  the  king- 
meant  Empson  and  Dudley.  In  the  eyes  of  the  un- 
lucky sufferer  it  was  pure  robbery,  and  so  he  spoke 
and  wrote  about  it  in  his  letters.  Mount  joy  and 
Colet  feared  that  he  would  revenge  himself  in  a  lam- 
poon, which  would  close  England  against  him  for 
ever.  He  was  wise  enough  to  confine  himself  to  pri- 
vate sarcasms.  "  Why,"  he  said,  "  should  I  quarrel 
with  England  ?  England  has  done  me  no  harm,  and 
I  should  be  mad  to  attack  the  king."  His  friend 
Battus  wrote  at  ouce  to  relieve  Mountjoy's  alarms. 

We  are  delighted  (he  said)  to  have  our  Erasmus 
back  among  us  ;  not  that  we  grudged  him  to  you,  but 
that  we  loved  him  ourselves  so  dearly.  I  am  sorry 
for  his  misfortune,  which  indeed  I  feared  might  befall 
him ;  but  in  any  condition,  my  dear  Lord,  we  rejoice 
to  have  recovered  what  was  part  of  our  souls,  torn 
and  battered  though  it  be.  I  do  not  mean  that  I 
would  not  sooner  have  heard  that  he  had  obtained  a 
settled  position  in  England  than  that  he  should  have 
come  back  insulted  and  plundered.  Great  God  !  that 
even  learning  and  the  Muses  cannot  be  safe  from 
those  harpies'  clutches.  Complaints,  however,  are 
idle.  We  must  bear  what  cannot  be  helped,  and  we 
shall  not  cry  out  when  he  himself  holds  up  so  bravely. 
He  says  that,  in  spite  of  all,  he  does  not  regret  his 
visit  to  England ;  that,  if  he  has  lost  his  money,  he 
has  gained  friends  who  are  worth  more  to  him  than 
all  the  gold  of  Croesus.  You  should  hear  him  talk  of 
Charnock,  and  Colet,  and  More.  Would  that  I  knew 
them.  You,  too,  he  warmly  praises,  and  is  only  sorry 
to  have  caused  you  so  much  expense  and  trouble.  He 
charges  me  to  write  and  tell  you  this. 


50  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

The  misadventure  at  Dover  took  wind,  and  was 
much  talked  about.  Erasmus  saw  that  something1  was 
expected  from  him  on  the  subject.  He  determined  to 
show  that  he  was  not  occupied  with  his  private  mis- 
fortunes, and  instead  of  writing  a  diatribe  on  English 
custom-houses,  he  put  together  with  a  few  weeks' 
labour  a  work  which  was  to  be  the  beginning  of  his 
world-wide  fame.  He  called  it  "  Adagia,"  a  compi- 
lation from  his  commonplace  books,  a  collection  of 
popular  sayings,  quotations,  epigrams,  proverbs,  anec- 
dotes, anything  amusing  which  came  to  hand,  with  his 
own  reflections  attached  to  them.  Light  literature 
was  not  common  in  those  days.  The  "  Adagia  "  was 
a  splendid  success.  Copies  were  sold  in  thousands, 
and  helped  a  little  to  fill  the  emptied  purse  again. 
Light  good-humoured  wit  is  sure  of  an  audience  none 
the  less  for  the  crack  of  the  lash,  now  heard  for  the 
first  time,  over  the  devoted  heads  of  ecclesiastics  and 
ecclesiasticism.  It  was  mild  compared  with  what  was 
to  follow,  but  the  skins  of  the  unreverend  hierarchy 
were  tender,  and  quivered  at  the  touch. 

A  few  specimens  are  all  which  I  have  time  for 
here. 

A  Greek  proverb  says  Androclides  is  a  great  man 
in  times  of  confusion.  This  applies  to  theologians 
who  make  reputations  by  setting  Christians  quarrel- 
ling, and  would  rather  be  notorious  by  doing  harm 
than  live  quietly  and  not  be  noticed. 

Talking  of  the  Ccena  Pontificalis,  he  says  it  ex- 
plains the  phrase  "  Vinum  Theologicum." 

Priests  (he  observes)  are  said  in  Scripture  to  de- 
vour the  sins  of  the  people,  and  they  find  sins  so  hard 
of  digestion  that  they  must  have  the  best  wine  to 
wash  them  down. 


Lecture  III.  51 

The  mendicant  friars  who  went  about  begging  and 
carrying  the  sacrament  he  compares  to  Lucian  s  /x?/rpa- 
yvprai,  with  their  drums  and  fifes  and  the  mysteries  of 
Cybele,  the  greatest  rascals  in  Lucian's  world.  Lu- 
cian's  spirit  can  be  traced  all  through  the  "  Adagia," 
so  like  was  the  Europe  of  the  fifteenth  century  to  the 
Europe  of  the  second.  The  clergy  felt  the  presence 
of  their  natural  enemy.  The  divines  at  Paris 
screamed.  The  divines  at  Cologne  affected  contempt. 
They  said  the  Proverbs  of  Solomon  were  enough 
without  the  Proverbs  of  Erasmus.  But  rage  or  sneer 
as  they  would,  they  had  to  feel  that  there  was  a  new 
man  among  them  with  whom  they  would  have  to 
reckon.  From  all  the  best,  from  Erasmus's  English 
friends  especially,  the  "  Adagia  "  had  an  enthusiastic 
welcome.  Warham,  who  was  soon  to  be  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  was  so  delighted  with  it  that  he  took 
his  copy  with  him  wherever  he  went,  and  now,  though 
he  had  met  the  author  of  the  "  Adagia  "  in  England, 
perceived  his  real  value  for  the  first  time.  He  sent 
him  money  ;  he  offered  him  a  benefice  if  he  would 
return,  and  was  profuse  in  his  praises  and  admiration. 

Erasmus  was  still  shy  of  patronage :  he  feared 
becoming  involved  and  losing  his  freedom.  He  re- 
gretted afterwards  the  opportunities  which  he  had 
thrown  away. 

It  is  a  great  thing  for  a  young  man  (he  observed 
towards  the  end  of  his  career)  to  secure  powerful 
friends  at  starting.  The  wise  way  is  to  accept  fa- 
vours and  show  proper  gratitude.  I  sinned  in  this 
way  in  my  own  youth.  Had  I  then  responded  as  I 
should  have  done  to  the  advances  of  great  persons 
who  took  notice  of  me,  I  should  have  grown  perhaps 
to  be  something  considerable.  I  was  too  fond  of  my 
liberty.     I  could   not   bear   restraint.     I  chose  com- 


52  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

panions  whom  I  should  have  done  better  to  avoid,  and 
was  thus  involved  in  a  long  struggle  with  poverty. 

But   he    was   never   ungrateful   to   Warnam.     He 

acknowledged  that  without  Warham's  help  he  would 
have  gone  under. 

Happy  was  I  (he  said)  to  find  such  a  Maecenas. 
Whether  he  is  ashamed  of  me  now  or  not,  I  know  not. 
I  fear  I  made  him  but  an  ill  return.  All  who  have 
gathered  good  from  my  writings  must  thank  Arch- 
bishop Warhani  for  it. 

The  problem  of  how  to  live  was  now  more  intricate 
than  ever.  He  was  becoming  a  great  man  and  was 
making  a  figure,  and  his  patron  at  Cambray  did  not 
show  that  he  was  pleased  with  him  by  any  increase  of 
liberality.  Warham  and  Mountjoy  did  what  they 
could,  but  Mountjoy's  father  was  not  rich.  Erasmus 
declined  Warham' s  offer  of  a  benefice  till  he  had  seen 
whether  anything  better  might  turn  up.  He  did  not 
mean  to  bury  himself  in  an  English  parsonage,  nor  did 
he  think  it  right  to  hold  a  sinecure.  Meanwhile,  he 
could  not  keep  his  expenses  within  the  limits  to  which 
poor  scholars  have  generally  to  confine  themselves. 

A  certain  style  of  easy  living  was  essential  to  his 
existence.  He  recpiired  good,  well-warmed  rooms, 
good  horses  to  ride,  good  servants  to  wait  upon  him, 
and  good  wine  to  drink  ;  and  to  supply  all  this  he  had 
no  regidar  income  at  all  except  scanty  fees  from  pupils. 

The  loss  at  Dover  was  most  serious  to  him,  though 
he  made  light  of  it.  The  "  Adagia  "  had  been  success- 
ful —  more  successful  by  far  than  he  expected  :  — 

The  book  is  a  sort  of  abortion  (he  said,  in  sending 
a  copy  to  Anderlin),  but  I  shall  be  grateful  to  you 
if  you  will  say  a  good  word  for  it  for  our  friendship's 
sake.  I  am  not  so  vain  as  to  believe  it  worth  much ; 
but  a  poor  article  needs  help,  all  the  more  when  you 


Lecture  III.  53 

want  to  make  money  out  of  it.     I  will  try  to  improve 
it  in  the  next  edition. 

The  "  Adagia  "  did  not  want  Anderlin's  help.  Edi- 
tion followed  edition,  and  money  did  come  of  it,  though 
far  short  of  what  its  author  needed. 

His  ambition  was  alight  again.  Once  more  he  was 
hankering  after  Rome  and  a  degree  at  Bologna.  The 
ways  and  means  must  be  provided  somehow,  and  we 
find  him  now  in  confidential  communication  on  the  sub- 
ject with  his  friend  Battus.  Battus  was  frecpiently  at 
Tournehem  Castle  —  held  some  office  or  other  there, 
at  any  rate  was  on  intimate  terms  there.  The  Lady 
Anna  Bersala  was  rich ;  she  was  open-handed  to  dis- 
tressed men  of  gifts,  and  proud  especially  of  her  ac- 
quaintance with  Erasmus.  Her  fortune  apparently, 
oi\  a  large  part  of  it,  was  at  her  own  disposition.  Here 
was  a  possible  resource. 

Erasmus  tells  Battus  that  he  has  been  ill,  robbed  of 
his  money,  and  worn  out  by  hard  work  over  the  "  Ada- 
gia." For  the  moment  he  can  only  live  by  borrow- 
ing, and  he  hopes  Battus  will  be  able  to  manage  better 
for  him.  The  coniino-  summer  he  wished  to  devote  to 
writimr  Dialogues.  In  the  winter,  if  means  could  be 
found,  he  proposed  to  go  to  Italy.  The  only  sources 
from  which  he  could  hope  to  be  supplied  were  the  Lady 
Anna  and  the  Bishop  of  Cambray,  and  he  desired  Bat- 
tus, not  as  if  he  was  asking  a  favour,  but  asking  only 
what  he  had  a  right  to  demand,  to  ascertain  how  much 
either  of  them  was  prepared  to  give  him. 

The  judicious  Battus  thought  it  unwise  to  apply  to 
the  Bishop.  The  Lady  not  unnaturally  concluded, 
like  Warham,  that  a  Church  benefice  would  be  the  most 
proper  provision  for  her  friend  :  a  benefice  could  doubt- 
less be  found  for  him  in  her  husband's  principality  ; 
meanwhile  he  could  take  up  his  residence  at  the  castle, 
where  he  could  live  without  expense. 


54  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Erasmus  certainly  did  not  underrate  his  own  deserv- 
ings,  and  lie  wanted  more  than  an  invitation  to  Tour- 
nehem. 

I  am  glad  (he  writes  in  reply)  that  the  Lady  is  so 
well  disposed  towards  me. 

"  Varium  et  mutabile  semper 
Foemiiia." 

—  but  the  Lady  Anna  is  not  an  ordinary  woman. 
Her  sending  for  me  in  this  way  will  give  you  an  oppor- 
tunity of  applying  for  some  money  for  me.  I  could 
not  even  go  to  her  on  foot  provided  as  I  am  at  present ; 
still  less  if  I  take  a  horse  and  two  servants  with  me. 
Nor  can  I  start  off  at  the  first  whistle  as  if  I  was  a 
fool.  I  must  put  my  affairs  in  order  in  Paris,  collect 
my  MSS.,  and  arrange  them.  You,  meanwhile,  must 
forward  to  me  some  decent  viaticum.  I  am  too  poor  to 
travel  at  my  own  cost,  nor  is  it  reasonable  to  expect  me 
to  give  up  my  position  here  for  nothing.  I  must  have 
a  better  horse  too.  I  don't  want  a  Bucephalus,  but  I 
require  a  beast  which  I  shall  not  be  ashamed  to  ride. 
You  must  arrange  this  with  the  lady.  If  she  will  not 
pay  the  expenses  of  the  journey,  of  course  I  need  not 
expect  a  salary  from  her.  Be  careful  and  wide-awake. 
I  also  shall  not  sleep  where  I  am.  You  know  what  to 
say  to  the  Lady  for  me.  Adieu,  and  show  yourself  a 
man. 

The  letters  which  passed  about  this  business  are 
only  dated  by  the  year,  and  they  leave  much  unex- 
plained as  to  the  position  which  the  Lady  Anna  de- 
signed for  Erasmus.  One  thing  only  is  clear,  that 
she  had  money  and  he  had  none,  and  he  felt  that  a 
person  like  himself  had  a  right  to  be  taken  care  of. 
Begging  for  largesses  from  a  marchioness  seems  not 
a  very  worthy  occupation.  But  if  Erasmus  was  to 
do  his  work  he  had  first  to  live,  and  to  beg  was  better 
than  to  sell  his  soul  for  promotion  in  the  Church, 
which  appeared  to  be  the  only  alternative. 


LECTURE   IV. 

We  left  Erasmus  made  famous  by  the  "Adagia," 
and  longing  for  Italy ;  but  in  sore  straits  for  money 
and  not  knowing  how  he  was  to  get  there.  He  was  to 
have  gone  to  Tournehem  on  a  long  visit  to  the  Lady 
of  Vere.  But  the  scheme  broke  down.  The  lady's 
views  were  interfered  with.  She  seems  to  have  fallen 
into  some  trouble  of  her  own,  and  Erasmus,  instead 
of  being  a  guest  in  the  castle,  we  find  flying  off  again 
to  his  own  Netherlands.  He  was  two  months  at  Ant- 
werp and  in  other  towns,  perhaps  examining  libraries. 
He  describes  himself  *  "  running  and  lapping  like  the 
dogs  in  Egypt."  His  relations  wished  him  to  return 
and  settle  among  them,2  but  he  disliked  their  heavy- 
headed  revels,  their  dirt,  and  their  ignorance.  At 
one  moment  he  would  go  back  to  England  and  study 
theology  with  Colet.  He  would  do  this  and  do  that. 
The  wind  might  blow  him  where  it  would.  At  last 
he  says  that  he  fled  from  Zealand  as  if  from  hell  — 
why  Zealand  was  so  particularly  hot  just  then  being- 
left  unexplained.  Italy  was  his  point  if  he  could  but 
get  there.  If  the  Lady  of  Vere  could  not  or  woidd 
not  help  him,  there  was  his  first  patron,  the  Bishop  of 
Cambray.  But  the  Bishop  was  in  no  good  humour 
with  his  vagrant  protvcjL 

I  went  to  see  him  (he  writes) ;  as  usual  he  finds 
the  best  of  reasons  for  giving  me  nothing.     As  to  the 

1  Ep.  xxxv. 

2  Ep.  lix. 


56  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Lady,  I  could  neither  speak  to  her  -without  danger 
nor  avoid  her  without  creating  suspicion.     You  know 

the  affairs  of ,  who   is    in  prison.     In  that 

quarter  I  had  no  prospects,  and  as  nothing  is  more 
silly  than  to  hang  on  in  idle  expectation,  I  have 
returned  to  Paris,  and  here  I  am  with  Battus  hard 
at  work,  he  at  Latin  and  I  at  Greek.  My  anchor 
is  down  for  a  month  or  two,  and  I  shall  then  be  off 
where  the  winds  shall  drive  me.  I  had  supposed  that 
the  Bishop  would  be  glad  to  see  me,  but  when  I 
called  on  him  he  was  cold  as  an  icicle,  and  it  is  ill 
depending  on  such  tidal  favour  (favour  that  ebbs  and 
flows).1  I  encountered  the  Lady  by  accident  on  the 
road.  She  gave  me  her  hand  with  a  gracious  smile. 
She  is  as  well  disposed  towards  me  as  ever  she  was, 
but  I  can  look  for  no  substantial  help  from  her.  The 
watch-dogs  are  on  the  lookout,  and  are  as  savage  as 
wolves.  Erasmus  must  feed  himself  and  wear  his 
own  feathers. 

Curiosity  is  set  guessing.  It  is  not  impossible  that 
the  lady's  husband  may  have  discovered  the  terms  in 
which  Erasmus  spoke  and  wrote  about  him.  The 
Marquis,  however,  died  soon  after,  and  with  him  died 
the  manly  resolution  with  which  this  letter  ended. 
Erasmus  discovered  that  other  scholars  were  partak- 
ing largely  of  the  Lady's  bounty.  She  was  now  free. 
He  thought  that  she  ought  to  have  remembered  her 
invitation  and  promises,  and  was  disposed  to  resent 
her  neglect  of  him.  Battus  was  dispatched  again  to 
Tournehem. 

She  2  has  provided  splendidly  for  William,  and  she 
has  let  me  go  away  empty,  when  he  was  hastening  to 
his  cups,  and  I  to  my  books.  You  know  what 
women's  minds  are;  and  if  the  fine  promises  made  to 

1  "iEstuariis  admiratoribus,"  Ep.  xxxv. 

2  Ep.  xxxvi.,  abridged. 


Lecture  IV.  57 

me  are  to  be  forgotten,  I  am  glad  that  William  lias 
been  more  fortunate.  But  I  do  wish  that  you  could 
persuade  her  to  keep  her  engagements,  and  either 
give  me  some  money  or  else  some  preferment,  as  she 
said  she  would.  I  am  especially  anxious  now,  because 
I  wish  to  leave  France  and  go  back  among  my  own 
people.  It  will  be  better  for  my  reputation,  and  per- 
haps will  be  better  for  my  health.  My  relations  in 
Holland  say  that  I  stay  at  Paris  because  I  can  lead  a 
libertine  life  there,  while  in  Paris  they  say  I  remain 
there  because  I  am  not  allowed  to  reside  in  my  own 

country.     I  wrote  to  D at  length  with  a  copy  of 

the  "  Adagia,"  and  I  sent  a  lad  with  other  copies  to 
England. 

If  the  Lady  or  if  Mountjoy  will  furnish  the  means, 
I  shall  get  my  Doctor's  degree  in  Italy.  If  not,  I 
must  go  without  the  degree.  Either  way  I  shall  soon 
be  among  you,  as  I  am  sick  of  France.  I  am  poor  as 
a  rat,  but,  as  you  know,  I  must  and  I  will  be  free. 

I  hear  the  Lady  goes  with  her  sister  to  Rome,  and 
proposes  that  I  should  accompany  them.  I  cannot 
tell  how  it  will  be. 

Free,  that  was  it.  He  had  but  to  put  on  harness 
again,  take  service  with  some  great  man,  or  take 
some  office  in  the  Church  of  which  he  would  have  had 
to  do  the  duty,  and  patrons  enough  would  have  been 
found  willing  to  promote  him.  If  this  could  not  be, 
economy  was  possible,  and  bread  and  water,  such  as 
other  penniless  students  had  to  be  content  with. 

But  when  all  is  said,  Erasmus  would  not  have  been 
Erasmus  if  he  had  gone  into  bondage,  and  hardship 
would  probably  have  killed  him.  He  had  no  vices. 
It  was  not  for  any  unworthy  purpose,  it  was  not  that 
he  might  be  idle  and  enjoy  himself,  that  he  begged  so 
shamelessly  of  great  people. 

If  every  hour  that  he  lived  had  been  ten,  he 
worked  hard  enough  to  occupy  them  all.     He  spent 


58  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

his  time  in  the  great  libraries,  devouring  all  the 
books  that  he  could  find.  Pie  toiled  harder  than  ever 
at  his  Greek  in  competition  with  his  friends  in  Eng- 
land. He  studied  the  Greek  poets  and  philosophers  ; 
he  studied  the  Greek  Christian  Fathers ;  he  trans- 
lated Greek  plays,  translated  Plutarch,  translated 
Lucian  —  all  under  enormous  difficulties,  for  printed 
books  were  scarce,  and  MSS.  jealously  guarded. 

Beyond  all,  mixing  as  he  did  in  every  kind  of 
society,  living  as  he  did  among  learned  professors, 
learned  theologians,  Parisian  poets  and  actors,  fash- 
ionable ladies,  bishops,  men  and  women  of  all  ranks 
and  characters,  he  was  studying  the  great  book  of 
mankind,  without  acquaintance  with  which  all  other 
knowledge  is  dry  and  unprofitable.  He  was  observ- 
ing his  own  fellow-mortals  —  observing  what  men 
were  doing,  thinking,  saying,  making  of  themselves. 
Now  and  then,  perhaps  —  not  often  —  (minds  like 
his,  which  are  busy  with  realities,  do  not  worry  them- 
selves with  abstruse  speculations) —  he  may  have 
stopped  to  ask  himself  what  after  all  the  extraordi- 
nary ant-heap  meant,  what  he  and  his  brother-insects 
were,  whence  they  came,  and  what  was  his  own  busi- 
ness. Pedants,  when  they  find  such  a  man  as  this 
driven  to  shifts  to  keep  his  head  above  water,  are  free 
with  their  moral  censures.  But  Erasmus  starving  in 
a  garret  might  have  been  as  dull  and  fusionless  as 
they. 

Often  his  impatience  ran  away  with  him.  Though 
the  Bishop  was  hard-hearted  and  the  Lady  would  not 
open  her  purse  strings,  the  unfortunate  mendicant 
was  forced  to  write  flattering  letters  to  both  of  them, 
and  to  the  Bishop's  brother,  the  Abbot  of  St.  Bertin. 
It  was  an  odious  task  :  he  writhed  under  the  ignomini- 
ous necessity. 


Lecture  IV.  59 

May  I  die  (he  says  to  Battus 1)  if  I  ever  wrote  any- 
thing so  much  against  the  grain.  You  would  under- 
stand and  pardon  my  ill-humour  if  you  knew  how 
hard  it  is  to  bring  one's  mind  to  the  production  of  a 
great  book,  and  when  one  is  on  fire  with  one's  subject 
to  be  dragged  back  into  these  contemptible  triviali- 
ties. My  Lady  requires  to  be  complimented  for  her 
munificence.  You  say  it  will  not  be  enough  if  I 
make  pretty  allusions  in  the  work  which  I  am  to  pub- 
lish ;  I  must  write  six  hundred  private  letters  besides. 
The  money  was  promised  to  me  a  year  ago,  but  you 
still  give  me  nothing  but  hopes,  and  you  are  as  sick 
as  I  am  of  the  whole  business. 

She  neglects  her  own  affairs,  and  you  suffer  for  it. 

She  trifles  and  plays  with  N or  M ,  and  you 

are  racked  for  it.  You  tell  me  she  cannot  give  me 
anything  at  present,  for  she  has  not  got  it.  If  she 
had  not  this  excuse  she  would  find  another.  These 
great  folks  are  never  at  a  loss  for  reasons.  What 
would  it  have  been  to  her  in  the  midst  of  such  a 
wasteful  expenditure  to  have  given  me  a  couple  of 
hundred  livres  ?  She  can  supply  those  hooded  whore- 
masters  the  monks,  vile  rascals  as  they  are,  and  she 
can  find  nothing  to  make  leisure  for  a  man  who  can 
write  books  which  will  be  read  in  ages  to  come.2  No 
doubt  she  has  had  her  troubles,  but  she  brought  them 
on  herself.  She  should  have  married  some  strong, 
vigorous  husband,  not  a  wretched  homunculus.  She 
will  be  in  trouble  again  unless  she  is  more  careful  of 
her  ways.  I  love  her.  I  am  bound  to  love  her,  for 
she  has  been  very  good  to  me.  But,  I  beseech  you, 
what  are  two  hundred  livres  to  her?  She  will  not 
miss  them  seven  hours  after.  I  must  have  the  money. 
If  I  cannot  have  it  now  from  her,  I  must  borrow  from 
a  Paris  banker.  You  say  that  you  have  written  to 
her   about   it   again    and  again,  hinting,  suggesting, 

i  EP.  lii. 

2  "Habet  quo  cucullatos  scortatores  et  tuipissimos  nebulones  alat, 
non  habet  quo  ejus  sustineat  otiura  qui  posait  etiam  posteritate  dignos 
libroa  couscribere." 


GO  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

entreating  —  and  all  in  vain.  You  should  have  gone 
more  roundly  to  work.  You  should  have  been 
peremptory,  and  then  all  would  have  gone  well. 
Modesty  is  out  of  place  when  you  have  a  friend  to 
serve. 

On  reflection,  Erasmus  had  to  allow  that  the  Lady 
might  not  be  able  to  help  him  just  then  —  that  she 
might  perhaps  need  help  herself.  But  he  was  an  irri- 
table, careless  mortal  —  negligent,  and  therefore  al- 
ways falling  into  misfortunes.  The  money  which  he 
made  by  his  books  went  into  wrong  hands.  The 
Dover  accident  was  but  one  of  many.  He  was  robbed 
(or  so  he  thought)  by  his  publishers,  robbed  by  his 
servants,  robbed  at  country  inns.  He  had  been  called 
out  of  Paris  by  business :  his  ill-luck  still  pursued 
him. 

I  have  had  an  unfortunate  journey.  The  bag  fell 
off  my  saddle  and  was  not  to  be  found.  It  contained 
a  shirt,  a  night-cap,  my  prayer-book,  and  ten  gold 
crowns.     The  man  in  whose  charge  I  left  my  other 

money  in  Paris  has  spent  it.     X ,  to  whose  wife 

I  advanced  a  loan,  has  run  off  to  Louvain,  and  the 
woman  after  him.  The  publisher  who  received  the 
payments  for  my  books  in  my  absence  has  not  ac- 
counted for  a  sow.  Augustine  1  is  still  absent.  He 
has  made  nothing  but  confusion.  He  has  stopped 
back  advances  which  were  on  the  way  to  me,  and 
writes  me  a  threatening  letter,  as  if  he  was  afraid  that 
I  should  get  hold  of  them.  The  capital  has  melted 
away  more  than  you  would  believe.  I  had  to  sell  my 
horse  for  five  crowns. 

Was  ever  scholar  so  hard  bestead  ?  The  sorrows  of 
Erasmus  might  make  a  fresh  chapter  in  the  "  Calam- 
ities of  Men  of  Genius."  Obviously  he  had  money 
enough  if  he  had  known  how  to  take  care  of  it.     His 

1  A  sort  of  secretary,  and  alternately  an  angel  and  a  villain. 


Lecture  IV.  61 

friends  might  well  hesitate  before  they  filled  a  purse 
which  had  no  bottom  to  it. 

Yet,  if  he  was  down  one  moment,  he  was  up  the 
next.  He  revived  among  the  wits  of  Paris  like  An- 
tseus  when  he  touched  his  mother  earth.  "  I  continue 
intimate  with  Anderlin,"  he  says,  "  and  I  have  found 
another  new  poet  that  I  like.  The  travelling  about 
has  not  improved  my  health,  but  I  stick  steadily  to 
work.  My  Italian  expedition  must  be  postponed  to 
the  end  of  the  summer." 

Italy  was  always  dancing  before  his  imagination, 
and  an  unexpected  chance  seemed  to  offer.  The  old 
Lord  Mountjoy  died  ;  Erasmus's  pupil  succeeded  to 
the  title  and  the  estates.  He,  too,  purposed  making 
a  torn*  across  the  Alps.  He  had  spoken  before  of  a 
wish  for  Erasmus's  company  should  he  make  the 
journey.  The  time  seemed  to  have  come,  but  the 
invitation  was  not  renewed. 

I  suppose  he  will  go  (Erasmus  said *)  if  his  mother 
will  let  him,  but  he  has  written  nothing  of  taking  me 
with  him.     I  was  cheated  with  that  hope  once  before. 

P means  to  visit   the  Lady.     I  don't   fancy 

him.  He  is  a  scab  of  a  fellow,  theology  incarnate. 
As  to  you,  finish  what  you  have  begun.  I  am 
ashamed  to  say  how  anxious  I  am.  My  money  wastes 
daily,  and  my  only  trust  is  in  my  Battus.  If  your 
heart  does  not  fail  you,  you  can  get  what  I  want. 
Modesty  forbids  me  to  ask  too  much  from  one  who 
has  already  been  so  generous  to  me.  But  do  you 
hold  out  your  hand,  and  I  will  hold  out  mine.2 

I  must  repeat  what  I  said  before  :  we  must  not 
judge  these  beggings  of  Erasmus  as  we  should  judge 
of  such  entreaties  now.  Allowance  must  be  made  for 
the  times.     A  rich  patron  was  then  the  natural  sup- 

1  To  Battus,  Ep.  liii.,  abridged. 

2  Ep.  liii. 


62  Life   and  Letters,   of  Erasmus. 

port  of  a  struggling  author,  and  perhaps  better  books 
were  produced  under  that  system  than  the  public  are 
likely  to  get  under  free  trade  and  in  an  open  market. 
We  shall  not  see  another  Hamlet  just  now,  or  another 
Don  Quixote.  But  make  what  deductions  we  please 
on  that  score,  modesty  was  not  one  of  Erasmus's 
faults,  nor  gratitude  on  an  exaggerated  scale.  Still 
dreaming  of  Italy,  and  unrepelled  by  his  last  repulse, 
he  tried  again  with  the  Bishop  of  Cambray.  Battus 
had  told  him  that  he  must  put  on  more  submissive- 
ness.  He  wrote  to  the  Bishop's  vicar-general  describ- 
ing himself  as  a  poor  homuncio  —  an  insignificant 
insect,  unworthy  to  approach  such  a  lofty  dignitary. 
He  asked  for  nothing.  He  begged  the  vicar  only  to 
remember  him  to  his  father  and  patron,  for  whom  he 
protested  that  he  had  the  same  boundless  affection 
which  he  had  felt  for  him  on  his  first  delivery  from 
slavery.  By  the  same  messenger  he  wrote  to  the 
Bishop  himself  in  an  agony  of  grief,  because  he  had 
heard  that  the  Bishop  suspected  him  of  ingratitude. 
Faults  he  might  have  many,  but  not  that  one.  He 
loved  his  old  patron  with  his  heart  and  soul.1 

The  hard-hearted  Bishop  was  still  unmoved,  or 
worse  than  unmoved,  for  he  sent  someone  to  make 
private  inquiries  how  Erasmus  was  going  on  in  Paris. 
Naturally  he  felt  himself  responsible  for  the  strange 
creature  who  was  so  much  talked  about. 

Erasmus  himself  was  no  longer  there ;  the  plague 
had  broken  out.  He  was  always  easily  alarmed,  and 
he  had  fled  to  Orleans  rather  disconsolate.  Augus- 
tine, who  was  so  lately  almost  a  thief,  had  been  taken 
back  into  favour  and  wrote  him  comforting  letters  — 
how  Faustus  Anderlin  had  spoken  of  him  as  a  shrine 
of  learning ;  Erasmus  mildly  deprecating  such  praises 

i  Ep.  liv. 


Lecture  IV.  63 

as  no  better  than  irony,  and  wishing  to  hear  no  more 
of  them. 

A  letter1  from  Orleans  to  Battus  describes  his  occu- 
pations there.  Battus  was  at  Tournehem,  and  had 
wished  Erasmus  to  join  him. 

I  cannot  go  to  you.  The  winter  journey  would  be 
too  much  for  me,  and  I  am  busy  with  work  which  I 
cannot  give  over.  I  want  books,  and  must  be  in  reach 
of  Paris  for  them.  But  here  I  must  stay  till  you  send 
me  money.  I  am  writing  a  Commentary  on  Jerome ; 
I  am  working  on  Plato ;  I  am  comparing  Greek  MSS. 
I  am  determined  to  master  this  Greek,  and  then  to 
devote  myself  arcanis  Uteris,  which  I  burn  to  handle.2 
My  health,  thank  God,  is  good  enough,  and  in  the 
coming  year  I  shall  strain  every  nerve  to  produce  a 
book  on  theology.  Let  me  have  but  three  years  of 
life,  and  I  will  make  an  end  of  envy  and  malice.  If 
the  Lady  has  made  me  a  present,  let  me  have  it,  with 
the  money  from  England.  If  not,  I  must  have  the 
English  money  at  any  rate,  to  take  me  to  Paris.     No 

rock  can  be  nakeder  than  I  am  at  present.     F 

offers  me  a  share  of  his  fortune,  but  I  must  not  bea 
burden  to  him,  and  the  fortune  besides  is  more  in 
expectation  than  possession.  Tell  me  what  I  am  to 
look  for  from  the  Lady,  how  I  stand  with  the  Bishop, 
how  with  the  Abbot  of  St.  Bertin  now  that  he  has 
seen  his  brother,  who  does  not  love  me ;  what  is  said 
about  the  "  Adagia ;  "  whether  there  are  news  from 
England.  Like  Cicero,  I  want  to  hear  everything 
about  everything. 

Again,  a  little  later,  also  to  Battus  : 3  — 

I  must  remain  where  I  am.  I  have  no  money,  and 
do  not  wish  to  borrow.  I  have  been  so  battered  this 
year  that  I  am  afraid  of  travelling  far  in  winter,  and 

1  Ep.  lxxiii.,  abridged. 

2  II,!  means  the  early  Christian   Fathers.    His  "burning"  was  to 

place  before  the  world  the  original  Christianity  of  the  Apostles. 
8  JSj).  lxxiv.,  abridged. 


64  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

if  I  show  in  Paris  again  so  soon,  evil  tongues  will  be 
busy  with  my  reputation.  The  Abbot  of  St.  Bertin 
writes  to  me  in  terms  which  show  that  he  likes  me 
best  at  a  distance.  In  the  Bishop  I  have  been  un- 
lucky enough  to  find  an  Anti-Mcecenas,  who  not  only 
will  not  help  me,  but  grudges  me  my  success.     He  has 

actually  dispatched  J.  S from  Louvain  to  hunt 

out  all  particulars  of  my  private  life  in  Paris,  and  re- 
port them  to  himself.  I  understand  he  has  promised 
a  large  reward  for  information,  and  he  says  he  won- 
ders how  I  can  show  my  face  in  Paris  after  being  cast 
off  by  himself.  If  he  was  foolish  enough  to  think 
such  things,  he  was  doubly  foolish  to  betray  himself 

to    a   needy    student  like  J.   S .     I    suppose   he 

thinks  that  I  have  neglected  him,  and  that  he  has 
something  to  complain  of.  I  have  half  a  mind  to  do 
something  outrageous  in  Paris,  just  to  provoke  him. 
Let  me  have  such  money  of  mine  as  is  in  your  hands, 
and  lend  me  a  little  besides.  You  may  count  on  being 
repaid.  The  Lady  will  surely  not  be  so  cruel  as  to  for- 
get my  birthday.  Alas,  for  the  blunder  which  caused 
me  so  much  loss  in  England ;  but  of  that  more  here- 
after, and  I  may  have  my  revenge  yet.  I  am  sorry 
that  I  sent  you  so  many  copies  of  the  "  Adagia." 
They  sell  freely  here,  and  at  a  good  price. 

Personal  embarrassments  did  not  prevent  Erasmus 
from  doing  honourable  actions  when  opportunity  came 
in  his  way.  His  reputation  was  high,  and  he  used  it 
to  his  infinite  credit.  An  instance  occurred  while  he 
was  at  Orleans.  Heresy-hunting  had  begun  in  the 
Low  Countries.  A  Dominican  monk  had  hunted  out 
some  poor  free-thinking  wretch,  and  denounced  him 
in  the  Church  Courts.  The  victim  was  saved  from 
the  stake  by  a  defect  of  evidence,  but  he  was  sen- 
tenced to  imprisonment  for  life,  his  wife  for  three 
months,  and  his  daughter  was  forced  into  a  convent. 
Erasmus  heard  of  it.  He  knew  the  Dominican,  knew 
him  for  a  false,  avaricious,  insolent  priest.     He  sent 


Lecture  IV.  65 

Battus  to  remonstrate  with  the  judges.  He  persuaded 
the  Abbot  of  St.  Bertiu  to  interfere.  The  sentence 
was  reversed,  and  the  unfortunate  heretic  had  his 
pardon. 

Again,  busy  as  he  was,  Erasmus  always  found  time 
to  give  wise  advice  to  anyone  who  consulted  him. 
Never  were  truer  words  than  those  which  he  wrote 
from  Orleans  to  a  student  at  Liibeck,  and  never  more 
to  the  purpose  than  in  this  present  age  of  our  own.1 

Read  first  the  best  books  on  the  subject  winch  you 
have  in  hand.  Why  learn  what  you  will  have  to  un- 
learn ?  Why  overload  your  mind  with  too  much  food, 
or  with  poisonous  food?  The  important  thing  for 
you  is  not  how  much  you  know,  but  the  cmality  of 
what  you  know.  Divide  your  day,  and  give  to  each 
part  of  it  a  special  occupation.  Listen  to  your  lec- 
turer ;  commit  what  he  tells  you  to  memory ;  write  it 
down  if  you  will,  but  recollect  it  and  make  it  your 
own.  Never  work  at  night;  it  dulls  the  brain  and 
hurts  the  health.  Remember  above  all  things  that 
nothing  passes  away  so  rapidly  as  youth. 

Admirable  advice !  though  he  might  have  added  a 
provision  that  the  lecturer  knew  what  he  was  talking 
about. 

A  few  words  will  not  be  out  of  place  about  the 
work  which  Erasmus  was  himself  busy  over,  and  of 
which  the  "Adagia"  had  been  but  a  preliminary 
specimen.  If  we  are  to  believe  the  account  of  his 
intellectual  history  which  he  gives  in  his  later  writ- 
ings, the  Christian  religion  appeared  to  him  to  have 
been  superseded  by  a  system  which  differed  only  in 
name  from  the  paganism  of  the  old  world.  The  saints 
had  taken  the  place  of  the  gods.  Their  biographies 
were  as  full  of  lies  and  as  ehildish  and  absurd  as  the 
old  theogonies.     The  Gospels  were  out  of  sight.     In- 

1  Ep.  Lxxix. 


66  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

stead  of  praying  to  Christ,  the  faithful  were  taught 
to  pray  to  miracle-working  images  and  relics.  The 
Virgin,  multiplied  into  a  thousand  personalities — our 
Lady  of  Loretto,  our  Lady  of  Saragossa,  our  Lady  of 
Walsingham,  and  as  many  more  as  there  were  shrines 
devoted  to  her  —  was  at  once  Queen  of  Heaven  and  a 
local  goddess.  Pious  pilgrimages  and  indulgences 
had  taken  the  place  of  moral  duty.  The  service  of 
God  was  the  repeating  of  masses  by  priests,  who  sold 
them  for  so  much  a  dozen.  In  the  exuberance  of 
their  power  the  clergy  seemed  to  exult  in  showing 
contempt  of  God  and  man  by  the  licentiousness  of 
their  lives  and  the  insolence  of  their  dominion.  They 
ruled  with  their  self-made  laws  over  soul  and  body. 
Their  pope  might  be  an  Alexander  VI. ;  their  cardi- 
nals were  princes,  with  revenues  piled  up  out  of  accu- 
mulated benefices;  their  bishops  were  magnificent 
nobles ;  and  one  and  all,  from  his  Holiness  at  Rome 
to  the  lowest  acolyte,  were  amenable  to  no  justice  save 
that  of  their  own  courts.  This  extraordinary  system 
rested  on  the  belief  in  the  supernatural  powers  which 
they  pretended  to  have  received  in  the  laying  on  of 
hands.  As  successors  of  the  Apostles  they  held  the 
keys  of  heaven  and  hell ;  their  excommunications  were 
registered  by  the  Almighty ;  their  absolutions  could 
open  the  gates  of  Paradise.  The  spiritual  food  pro- 
vided in  school  or  parish  church  was  some  prepos- 
terous legend  or  childish  superstition,  varied  with  the 
unintelligible  speculations  of  scholastic  theology.  An 
army  of  friars,  released  from  residence  by  dispensa- 
tion, were  spread  over  Europe,  taking  the  churches 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  secular  priests,  teaching  what 
they  pleased,  and  watching  through  the  confessional 
the  secret  thoughts  of  man  and  woman.  These  friars 
thrust  themselves  into  private  families,  working  on 


Lecture  IV.  67 

the  weakness  of  wife  or  daughter,  dreaded  and  de- 
tested by  husbands  and  fathers  ;  and  Erasmus,  as  well 
as  the  loudest  of  the  Protestant  reformers,  declared 
that  they  abused  the  women's  confidence  for  the  vilest 
purposes.  Complaint  was  useless.  Resistance  was 
heresy,  and.  a  charge  of  heresy,  unless  a  friendly  hand 
interposed,  meant  submission  or  death.  Unhappy 
men,  unconscious  of  offence,  were  visited  by  a  bolt  ont 
of  the  blue  in  the  shape  of  a  summons  before  a  Church 
court,  where  their  accusers  were  their  judges. 

Rebellion  was  in  the  air.  Erasmus  was  never  for 
rebellion,  but  he  knew  how  far  he  might  go  and  how 
much  he  might  safely  say  with  the  certainty  of  finding 
support  behind  him.  He  had  studied  the  New  Testa- 
ment. He  had  studied  the  early  Fathers.  He  could 
point  the  contrast  between  past  and  present.  The 
New  Testament  to  the  mass  of  Christians  was  an  un- 
known book.  He  could  print  and  publish  the  Gospels 
and  the  Epistles.  He  could  add  remarks  and  com- 
mentaries, and,  if  he  was  moderately  cautious,  neither 
monk  nor  bishop  could  charge  him  with  heresy.  He 
could  mock  superstition  into  contempt.  He  could 
ridicule  as  he  pleased  the  theology  and  philosophy 
which  had  been  sublimated  into  nonsense.  With  the 
New  Testament  he  meant  to  publish  the  works  of 
Jerome,  because  no  one  of  the  Fathers  gave  so  lively, 
so  vivid  a  picture  of  the  fourth  century,  and  Jerome, 
though  a  monk  and  a  panegyrist  of  monkdom,  had 
seen  clearly  that,  if  it  was  a  road  to  sanctity,  it  was  a 
road  also  to  the  other  place.  These  were  the  "  arcana 
UteroB  "  which  he  was  burning,  as  he  said,  to  go  to 
work  upon,  and  through  all  these  years  of  trial  he  was 
preparing  for  his  vast  undertaking. 

The  monks  recognised  their  enemy.  They  were 
children  of  darkness,  and  they  dreaded  daylight  like 


G8  Life  and  Letters,  of  Erasmus. 

bats  and  owls.  The  revival  of  learning,  the  growing 
study  of  the  classical  poetry  and  history  and  philoso- 
phy, they  knew  instinctively  would  be  fatal  to  them. 
They  fought  against  it  as  if  it  were  for  life  or  death, 
and,  by  identifying  knowledge  with  heresy,  they  made 
orthodoxy  synonymous  with  ignorance.  Erasmus 
sharpened  his  weapons  for  the  fray  ;  you  trace  his 
indignation  through  his  letters. 

Obedience  (he  says)  is  so  taught  as  to  hide  that 
there  is  any  obedience  due  to  God.  Kings  are  to 
obey  the  Pope.  Priests  are  to  obey  their  bishops. 
Monks  are  to  obey  their  abbots.  Oaths  are  exacted 
that  want  of  submission  may  be  punished  as  perjury. 
It  may  happen,  it  often  does  happen,  that  an  abbot  is 
a  fool  or  a  drunkard.  He  issues  an  order  to  the 
brotherhood  in  the  name  of  holy  obedience.  And 
what  will  such  order  be  ?  An  order  to  observe  chas- 
tity ?  An  order  to  be  sober  ?  An  order  to  tell  no  lies  ? 
Not  one  of  these  things.  It  will  be  that  a  brother  is 
not  to  learn  Greek ;  he  is  not  to  seek  to  instruct  him- 
self. He  may  be  a  sot.  He  may  go  with  prostitutes. 
He  may  be  full  of  hatred  and  malice.  He  may  never 
look  inside  the  Scriptures.  No  matter.  He  has  not 
broken  any  oath.  He  is  an  excellent  member  of  the 
community.  While  if  he  disobeys  such  a  command 
as  this  from  an  insolent  superior  there  is  stake  or  dun- 
geon for  him  instantly. 

Scholastic  theology  had  to  be  deposed  from  its 
place  before  rational  teaching  could  get  a  hearing. 
Erasmus  found  that  he  must  study  it  more  closely 
than  he  had  hitherto  cared  to  do,  and  he  set  himself 
resolutely  to  work  on  his  "  Duns  Scotus "  and  his 
"Angelical  Doctor."  He  describes  the  effect  upon 
him  to  his  pupil  Grey  : 1  — 

I  am  buried  so  deep  in  "  Scotus "  that  Stentor 
could  not  wake  me.     "  Wake  me  !  "  you  say.     "  Why, 

1  Ep.  lxxxv.,  abridged. 


Lecture  IV.  G9 

you  must  be  awake,  or  you  could  not  be  writing  a  let- 
ter." Hush !  you  do  not  understand  the  theological 
slumber.  You  can  write  letters  in  it.  You  can  de- 
bauch yourself  and  get  drunk  in  it.  I  used  to  think 
that  the  story  of  Epimenides  was  a  fable.  I  know 
better  now.  Epimenides  lived  to  extreme  old  age. 
His  skin,  when  he  died,  was  found  inscribed  with  cu- 
rious characters.  It  is  said  to  be  preserved  in  Paris 
in  the  Sorbonne,  that  sacred  shrine  of  Scotist  divinity, 
and  to  be  as  great  a  treasure  there  as  the  Sibyl's  book 
at  Rome.  Epimenides  was  a  Scotist  theologian,  or 
perhaps  he  was  Scotus  himself.  He  composed  myste- 
ries which,  as  he  was  not  a  prophet,  he  could  not  him- 
self understand.  The  Soi-bonne  doctors  consult  the 
skin  when  their  syllogisms  fail  them.  No  one,  how- 
ever, may  venture  to  look  in  it  till  he  is  a  master  of 
fifteen  years'  standing.  If  younger  men  try  they 
become  blind  as  moles. 

Epimenides  went  out  walking  one  day.  He  missed 
his  way  and  wandered  into  a  cave,  which  struck  him 
as  a  quiet  plaoe  for  thinking.  Even  doctors  of  divin- 
ity do  now  and  then  wander.  He  sat  down,  he 
gnawed  his  nails,  he  turned  over  in  his  mind  his  in- 
stances, his  quiddities  and  his  quoddities.  He  dropped 
asleep,  and  so  remained  for  forty-seven  years.  Happy 
Epimenides  that  ho  woke  at  last !  Some  divines  never 
wake  at  all,  and  fancy  themselves  most  alive  when 
their  slumber  is  deepest.  When  he  came  to  himself 
ho  was  in  a  changed  world.  The  mouth  of  the  cave 
was  overhung  with  moss.  Landscape,  town,  streets, 
houses,  inhabitants,  dress,  language,  all  were  altered  ; 
so  fast  mortal  things  pass  on.  He  had  been  dreaming 
.ill  the  while,  dreaming  Scotist  theology,  and  nothing 
else.  Scotus  was  Epimenides  redivwus,  and  now  you 
may  fancy  your  friend  Erasmus  sitting  among  his 
accursed  volumes,  yawning,  knitting  his  brows,  eyes 
staring  into  vacancy.1     They  say  Scotist  theology  can- 

1  "Quid  si  videres  Erasmum  inter  sacros  LUosSootistaSKexip'draseden* 
tem,  si  cerneres  frontem  contractam,  oculoa  stupentes,  Milium  Bollici- 
tum  ?  "  etc.  —  Ep,  Ixxxv. 


70  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

not  be  understood  by  disciples  of  the  Muses  and  the 
Graces.  You  must  first  forget  what  you  have  learnt 
elsewhere.  You  must  vomit  up  the  nectar  which  you 
have  drunk  on  Helicon.  I  do  my  best.  I  speak  bad 
Latin.  I  never  use  a  neat  expression.  I  never  risk 
a  jest.  I  am  getting  on.  They  will  take  Erasmus 
for  one  of  themselves  by-and-by.  You  ask  what  all 
this  means.  It  means  that  when  you  sec  me  next  you 
will  find  nothing  left  of  your  old  acquaintance.  Do 
not  mistake  me.  Theology  itself  1  reverence  and 
always  have  reverenced.  I  am  speaking  merely  of 
the  theologastrics  of  our  own  time,  whose  brains  are 
the  rottenest,  intellects  the  dullest,  doctrines  the 
thorniest,  manners  the  brutalest,  life  the  foulest, 
speech  the  spitefulest,  hearts  the  blackest  that  I  have 
ever  encountered  in  the  world.1 

Erasmus  was  doubtless  right  in  saying  that  he  was 
getting  on ;  he  was  preparing  to  assail  the  Philistine 
champion  ;  yet  he  had  no  better  arms  than  the  sling 
and  the  stone,  and,  while  he  was  working  himself  into 
these  divine  furies,  he  was  in  absolute  pecuniary  low 
water.  His  books  were  selling  faster  than  ever,  but 
small  profit  came  to  him  —  none  at  all,  if  we  believe 
his  own  account  of  his  situation  :  "  had  but  three 
crowns  left,  and  those  under  weight."  He  had  sent 
to  England  to  borrow  or  beg  from  Mountjoy.  He 
confessed  that  he  was  ashamed  of  himself,  but  there 
was  no  help  for  it. 

Mountjoy  (he  writes  to  Battus  2)  may  give  me  some- 
thing. You  must  extract  more  for  me  from  the 
Lady,  or  from  somebody  else.  Thirty  gold  crowns  I 
must  have.  It  is  not  for  nothing.  I  can  stay  no 
longer  in  Orleans.     If  I  remain  there  will  be  a  catas- 

1  "  Quorum  cerebellis  nihil  putidius,  lingua  nihil  barbarius,  ingenio 
nihil  stupidius,  doctrina  nihil  spinosius,  nioribus  nihil  asperius,  vita  ni- 
hil fucatius,  oratione  nihil  virulentius,  pectore  nihil  nigrius." 

-  Ep.  lxxxi.,  abridged. 


Lecture  IV.  71 

troplie,  and  I  and  all  my  knowledge  will  come  to 
wreck.  I  beseech,  I  adjure  you.  If  any  spark  still 
burns  of  your  old  affection  for  me,  do  what  you  can. 
The  Lady  promises  every  day,  but  nothing  comes. 
The  Bishop  is  displeased  with  me.     The  Abbot  tells 

me  to  hope.     But  nobody  gives  except  N ,  whom, 

wretched  being,  I  have  so  drained  that  he  has  no- 
thing left  to  bestow.  The  plague  has  taken  away  my 
pupils,  the  sole  resource  I  had  for  earning  anything. 
What  is  to  become  of  me  if  my  health  breaks  down  ? 
What  work  can  I  do  without  books  ?  What  will  lit- 
erature ever  do  for  me  at  all,  unless  I  can  obtain  some 
secure  position  where  I  shall  not  be  the  butt  of  every 
blockhead  ?  I  do  not  write  all  this  to  vex  you  with 
my  complaints,  but  I  want  to  wake  you  if  you  are 
asleep,  and  stir  you  to  exert  yourself.  Augustine  reads 
the  "  Adagia "  to  large  audiences.  Everything  is 
right  that  way.  If  you  can  dispose  of  any  copies  for 
me  at  St.  Omer  you  will  find  them  in  my  baggage. 

Poets  and  philosophers  have  been  often  driven  hard 
by  the  pinch  of  necessity.  But  poets  and  philosophers 
must  eat  like  other  men.  They  cannot  feed  on  air 
like  the  chameleon.  Evidently  there  was  no  hope 
from  the  Bishop :  the  "  Adagia  "  must  have  finished 
matters  in  that  quarter.  His  brother  the  Abbot  was 
better  inclined,  though  he  hardly  ventured  to  show  it. 
Battus  had  told  Erasmus  that  if  he  wanted  to  recover 
favour  in  those  quarters  he  must  flatter  them.  He  did 
what  he  could.  He  addressed  long  letters  to  them 
both,  pouring  out  streams  of  gratitude  for  their  past 
kindness,  and  of  admiration  for  their  extraordinary 
qualities.  He  complimented  the  Bishop  1  on  his  ma- 
jestic bearing  on  public  occasions,  and  on  the  charm 
and  grace  of  his  private  conversation.  lie  told  the 
Abbot,  playing  skilfully  on  the  rivalry  between  the 
secular  and  regular  orders,  that  he  was  a  match  for 
the  shrewdest  of  the  tyrants  in  purple  (that  is,  the 

1  Ep.  xci. 


72  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Bishops),  while  he  coiild  be  kind  and  condescending 
to  little  persons  like  his  client  Erasmus.  To  show  the 
Abbot  how  good  he  was,  and  how  reverend  towards 
the  Church's  mysteries,  he  sent  him  a  long  story  of 
certain  goblins  and  magicians  who  had  been  playing 
pranks  at  Orleans,  with  a  comical  affectation  of  seri- 
ousness. The  story  will  perhaps  interest  you  as  an 
illustration  of  the  times.  The  words  are  Erasmus's 
own,  slightly  compressed :  — 

A  man  in  this  town  has  been  practising  magic  with 
his  wife  and  daughter.  He  kept  the  adorable  body  of 
Christ  (my  flesh  creeps  as  I  write)  in  a  box  under  his 
bed.  He  had  bought  it  from  a  Mass  priest  for  a  less 
price  than  the  Jews  paid  for  Christ  Himself.  One 
night  he  brought  the  Mystery  out  of  the  straw.  The 
girl,  a  virgin  (only  a  virgin  could  venture),  pointed 
at  it  with  a  naked  sword.  A  head  was  produced,  with 
three  faces,  representing  the  Triple  Monad.  The  ma- 
gician opened  his  book,  adored  the  triad,  and  then 
prayed  to  the  devil  till  Satan  appeared  in  person,  gave 
him  some  money  and  promised  more.  The  magician 
said  it  was  not  enough  for  his  long  service.  The 
devil  answered  that  to  find  a  treasure  they  must  have 
the  help  of  a  scholar,  and  bade  him  apply  to  the  prior 
of  a  monastery  in  the  town .  The  prior  was  a  bachelor  of 
divinity,  and  of  note  as  a  preacher.  Why  the  devil 
chose  such  a  man  is  hard  to  say,  unless  he  thought  the 
Mendicants  were  all  rascals.  However,  to  the  prior 
the  magician  went  and  told  him  he  had  some  wonder- 
ful MSS.  which  he  could  not  read,  and  that  he  wanted 
the  prior's  assistance.  He  produced  them.  One  was 
an  Old  Testament  in  French  ;  another  a  book  of  nec- 
romancy, which  the  prior  rashly  glanced  at  and  said 
it  was  a  work  of  evil.  The  magician  swore  the  prior 
to  secrecy,  and  then  said  he  had  more,  and  that  if  a 
learned  man  would  read  them  for  him  they  might  both 
be  enormously  rich. 

The  prior  pretended  to  be  caught,  and  wormed  out  the 


Lecture  IV.  73 

whole  secret,  even  to  the  possession  of  the  Holy  Thing. 
He  said  he  must  see  it.  The  magician  took  him  to  his 
house  and  showed  him  all.  The  prior  went  straight 
to  the  vicar-general,  a  good  sensible  man,  and  a  friend 
of  my  own.  The  vicar  called  in  the  police.  The  ma- 
gician and  the  women  were  arrested.  The  house  was 
searched,  the  body  of  Christ  was  found  and  reverently 
carried  away.  All  that  day  and  all  the  next  night  the 
priests  and  monks  prayed  and  chanted.  Next  morn- 
ing a  special  service  in  the  cathedral.  The  streets 
were  carpeted.  Bells  rang  in  all  the  steeples.  The 
clergy  walked  in  procession,  carrying  their  relics,  and 
the  Mystery  was  borne  in  solemn  pomp  to  the  Church 
of  St.  Cross.  The  prior  told  the  story  from  the  pulpit 
to  a  vast  crowd,  taking  however  so  much  credit  to  him- 
self that  the  vicar-general  had  to  rebuke  him.  Two 
divines  and  two  lawyers  were  brought  from  Paris  to 
examine  the  prisoners.  The  vicar  told  me  the  man 
confessed  to  horrors,  which  were  perhaps  not  true,  as 
they  were  drawn  out  of  him  on  the  rack.  He  said  the 
devil  also  misused  his  wife  at  nights.  The  daughter 
said  the  devil  also  visited  her.  The  tales  of  Medea 
and  Thyestes  become  credible  when  such  frightful 
things  are  possible  in  Christendom.  No  Chaldeans, 
no  enchanters,  no  Pythonesses,  no  Thessalian  witches 
produced  the  equal  of  this  tragedy  of  Orleans  —  a  por- 
tent not  born  of  Night,  the  mother  of  the  Furies,  but 
of  avarice,  the  mother  of  all  evil :  impiety,  superstition, 
sacrilege,  all  in  one.  What  wonder  that  we  have  wars, 
and  famine,  and  pestilence,  that  vice  has  grown  so  com- 
mon that  it  ceases  to  be  called  vice,  when  we  have 
•  rimes  among  us  Avorse  than  those  which  caused  the 
Deluge  !  As  Horace  says  :  our  sins  forbid  Jove  to  lay 
aside  his  thunderbolts. 

Eere  ends  my  Iliad,  most  kind  father.  Grief  and 
the  pleasure  of  writing  to  you  have  made  my  pen  run 
too  long. 

This  lecture  has  run  too  long  also  ;  but  Erasmus 
was  a  many-sided  man,  and  it  is  well  to  look  ai  him 
all  round. 


LECTURE  V. 

Neither  flattery,  nor  eloquence,  nor  tales  of  magic 
and  sacrilege  melted  the  hearts  of  the  Bishop  of  Cam- 
bray  and  the  Abbot  of  St.  Bertin.  Both  seem  to  have 
been  inexorable.  But  Erasmus's  heart  was  still  bent 
on  Italy.  Modesty,  or  some  such  vice,  prevented  Bat- 
tus  from  urging  the  Lady  of  Vere  as  vehemently  as 
Erasmus  desired.  The  lady,  he  was  convinced,  needed 
only  to  be  judiciously  pressed.  There  was  no  husband 
any  longer  to  interfere  with  her  liberality.  Her  son, 
the  young  Adolph,  was  a  child,  and  she  was  absolute 
mistress  of  the  revenues  of  the  principality. 

Go  yourself  to  the  Lady  (Erasmus  again  writes  to 
his  friend  x).  Take  Adolf  with  you  to  present  my 
petition  that  he  may  touch  his  mother's  heart,  and  do 
not  let  him  ask  too  little.  .  .  .  Insist  upon  my  deli- 
cacy. Say  that  my  pride  forbids  my  representing  my 
necessities  directly  to  herself.  Tell  her  that  I  am  in 
extreme  distress,  that  this  banishment  to  Orleans  has 
taken  away  my  only  means  of  earning  money  for  myself; 
that  a  Doctor's  degree  can  only  be  obtained  to  advan- 
tage in  Italy,  and  that  a  person  so  weak  in  health  as  I 
am  cannot  travel  there  with  an  empty  purse.  Tell  her 
that  I  cannot  degrade  my  profession  as  a  man  of 
learning  by  reducing  my  scale  of  living  below  its  pres- 
ent level,  and  that  Erasmus  will  do  more  credit  to  her 
liberality  than  the  theologians  whom  she  has  taken  into 
her  favour.  They  can  only  preach  sermons  :  I  am 
writing  books  which  will  live  for  ever.     They  address 

1  Ep.  xciv.,  abridged. 


Lecture   V.  75 

single  congregations  :  I  shall  be  read  by  all  the  world. 
Theologians  there  will  always  be  in  abundance :  the 
like  of  me  comes  but  once  in  centuries. 

This  sounds  like  vanity,  but  it  is  n't.    Horace  says  :  — 

"  Exegi  momimonttmi  sere  perenuius." 

Shakespeare  says :  "  The  pyramids  shall  not  outlive 
this  powerful  rhyme."  Erasmus  was  right,  though 
one  could  wish  that  he  had  not  said  it  so  emphatically  ; 
but  perhaps  it  was  only  his  humour.  He  goes  on  to 
Battus  in  the  same  strain  :  — ■ 

Do  not  be  shy.  Do  not  mind  telling  a  lie  or  two  in 
a  friend's  interest.  Show  her  that  she  will  be  none  the 
poorer  if  a  few  of  her  crowns  go  to  restore  the  corrupt 
text  of  Jerome,  to  revive  true  theology,  and  give  back 
to  the  world  the  works  of  other  Fathers  which  have 
been  left  to  perish.  Enlarge  on  this  with  your  utmost 
force.  Insist  on  my  character  and  my  expectations,  my 
love  for  the  Lady,  my  diffidence,  &c,  &c.  Then  say  that 
1  have  written  to  you  that  I  absolutely  must  have  200 
livres  with  a  year's  salary  from  the  situation  which 
she  promised  me.  It  is  no  more  than  truth.  I  cannot 
go  to  Italy  with  only  a  hundred,  unless  I  put  my  head 
under  the  yoke  again  —  go  as  companion  to  some  rich 
man,  and  this  I  will  rather  die  than  do.  To  her  it  can 
matter  nothing  whether  she  gives  it  now  or  gives  it  a 
year  hence.  To  me  it  matters  everything.  Suggest, 
besides,  that  some  preferment  ought  to  be  waiting  to 
receive  me  on  my  return,  that  I  may  have-decent  means 
of  maintaining  myself.  Advise  her,  as  of  yourself,  to 
promise  me  the  first  that  shall  fall  vacant.  It  may  not 
be  the  best  in  her  gift,  but  it  will  be  something,  and  I 
can  change  it  afterwards  when  a  better  falls  in. 

Doubtless  (the  letter  continues)  she  will  have  many 
applicants,  but  you  can  say  that  I  am  one  of  a  thousand, 
and  am  not  to  be  weighed  in  a  balance  with  others. 
You  will  not  mind  a  few  good  sound  lies  for  Erasmus. 
See  that  Adolf  presses  her  too,  and  dictate  to  him 
what  he  shall  say  that  will  be  most  moving.     See  also 


7<>  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

that  whatever  is  promised  shall  be  promised  with  Adolf's 
knowledge,  so  that,  if  anything  happens  to  the  mother, 
I  may  recover  from  the  son.  Add,  besides,  that  I  am 
losing  my  eyesight  from  overwork,  as  Jerome  did  :  that 
yon  have  this  from  me  and  know  it  to  be  true.  Tell  her 
that  a  sapphire  or  some  other  gem  is  good  for  bad  eyes, 
and  persuade  her  to  send  me  one.  I  would  myself 
have  suggested  that  to  her,  but  I  have  no  Pliny  at  hand 
to  refer  to.  Your  own  doctor,  however,  will  confirm 
the  fact.  All  will  go  well  if  you  only  do  your  part. 
Seize  opportunity  by  the  locks,  and  do  not  be  afraid 
that  if  you  can  bring  the  Lady  to  do  all  this  for  me 
you  will  have  exhausted  your  own  claim,  and  can  after- 
wards ask  nothing  for  yourself.  I  know  that  you  are 
dependent  on  her  generosity,  but  consider  that  the  two 
things  cannot  be  had  together.  The  Lady's  purse  will 
not  be  emptied  by  my  small  demands  upon  it.  You 
can  ask  any  day.  I  may  never  have  another  oppor- 
tunity. Perhaps  you  think  I  ought  to  be  satisfied  if 
I  am  kept  out  of  reach  of  starvation.  I  think,  on  the 
contrary,  that  I  shall  have  to  abandon  literature  alto- 
gether if  I  cannot  obtain  means  from  one  quarter  or 
another  to  go  on  with  it  properly. 

No  man  can  write  as  he  should  without  freedom  from 
sordid  cares,  and  I  at  this  moment  am  little  better  than 
a  beggar,  with  scarce  a  livre  left.  I  low  many  ignorant 
asses  roll  in  money !  Is  it  a  great  thing  to  keep  Eras- 
mus from  dying  of  hunger  ? 

What,  after  all,  have  I  received  from  the  Lady  except 
promises  ?  You  may  say  I  lost  my  money  in  England. 
So  I  did.  But  it  was  no  more  my  fault  than  it  was 
yours.  I  did  not  go  to  England  lightly.  I  did  not 
leave  it  lightly.  Accidents  may  befall  any  of  us. 
You  tell  me  that  I  ought  to  dedicate  some  complimen- 
tary work  to  the  Lady.  Trust  me,  I  am  working  hard 
enough.  I  spare  nothing,  not  even  my  health.  To 
please  my  friends,  I  compose  for  one ;  I  read  for  an- 
other ;  I  correct  for  a  third ;  while  I  compose,  read, 
and  correct  for  myself  too.  I  toil  over  Greek  texts, 
the  toughest  job  of  the  whole,  and  yet  I  am  to  produce 


Lecture   V.  77 

something  more  for  the  Lady,  as  if  I  had  no  more  to  do 
than  yourself,  or  as  if  my  wits  were  of  adamant.  Try 
yourself  to  write  a  book,  and  then  complain  of  me  for 
being  dilatory.  Your  jokes,  my  sweet  James,  are  fool- 
ish and  not  to  the  point.  They  have  more  of  Momus 
in  them  than  of  wit.  I  have  set  my  heart,  I  tell  you, 
on  compassing  the  whole  round  of  literature.  What  I 
have  done  so  far  is  mere  trifling.  I  have  long  seen  that 
the  majority  of  men  are  fools.  My  writings  will  not  fly 
away,  and  I  prefer  solid  fame  which  comes  late,  to  noto- 
riety which  grows  quickly  and  fades  so  soon.  How 
often  have  I  not  seen  it  so !  Therefore,  I  beseech  you, 
let  me  manage  this  business  my  own  way.  If  you 
will  take  care  of  my  material  fortunes,  do  not  fear  that 
I  shall  spare  myself  my  own  exertions.  One  should  not 
ask  small  favours  from  great  people.  Again,  do  your 
part  prudently  and  all  will  be  well.  But  I  must  not 
be  cheated.  If  you  despair  of  success  tell  me  so  plainly, 
and  I  will  try  elsewhere.  You  might  do  something, 
perhaps,  if  you  saw  a  chance,  with  the  Abbot  of  St. 
Bertin.  You  know  the  nature  of  the  man.  Invent 
a  plausible  excuse.  Tell  him  that  I  really  have  a  great 
work  on  hand  —  say  I  am  restoring  the  text  of  Jerome, 
which  careless  theologians  have  corrupted  —  that  I  am 
clearing  up  points  about  Jerome  which  have  been  mis- 
understood—  that  I  want  books  and  must  have  help 
to  get  them.  You  will  be  telling  no  lies  in  this,  for  it 
is  what  T  am  really  occupied  with.  If  you  can  get  a  large 
sum  out  of  the  Lady  send  my  servant  with  it.  If  she 
gives  but  ten  or  twelve  crowns,  or  nothing  at  all,  you 
can  dispatch  them  by  another  hand.  Any  way,  I  must 
have  a  few  crowns  from  you.  I  starve  for  books. 
Leisure  I  have  none,  and  I  am  out  of  health  besides. 

Many  a  fine  writer  besides  Erasmus  has  had  to 
petition  humbly  for  great  men's  superfluities.  In 
these  days  of  liberty  we  rejoice  that  all  that  is  over, 
and  that  the  gifted  author  deals  directly  with  the 
reading  public.  I  suppose  we  shall  see  fine  results  in 
time.     I  do  not  know  that,  so  far  as  literature  is  con- 


78  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

cerned,  they  have  been  brilliant  as  yet.  Erasmus 
might  ;it  any  time  have  sold  himself  and  his  talents  to 
the  Church,  and  become  as  rich  as  Wolsey.  He  pre- 
ferred literature  and  a  patroness,  and  the  result  was 
that  he  became  one  of  the  Immortals.  The  Lady 
Anna  waited  perhaps  to  be  entreated  rather  too  long, 
but  what  might  be  honourably  accepted  might,  under 
the  circumstances  of  Erasmus,  be  legitimately  asked 
for.  Without  Maecenas  we  might  have  had  no  Odes 
or  Satires  from  Horace ;  without  the  Duke  of  Lerma 
we  should  have  had  no  Don  Quixote  ;  without  the 
Duke  of  Weimar  we  might  have  had  no  Faust ;  with- 
out the  Lady  of  Vere  there  would  have  been  no  New 
Testament,  no  "  Moria,"  no  "  Colloquies."  The  patron- 
age system  may  not  be  the  best,  but  it  is  better  than 
leaving  genius  to  be  smothered  or  debased  by  misery. 
And  when  genius  is  taught  that  life  depends  on  pleas- 
ing the  readers  at  the  shilling  bookstalls,  it  may  be 
smothered  that  way  too,  for  all  that  I  can  see  to  the 
contrary. 

Even  then,  however,  a  certain  price  had  to  be  paid 
in  the  way  of  compliment  and  flattery.  Battus  had 
told  Erasmus  that  the  Lady  of  Vere  expected  it,  and 
since  he  had  to  do  it,  he  did  it  handsomely.  He  wrote 
to  her,  and  this  is  what  the  letter  contained  : *  — ■ 

TO   THE  PRINCESS   OF   VERE. 

Three  Annas  are  mentioned  by  ancient  writers : 
Dido's  sister  Anna,  who  became  a  goddess,  the  aged 
Anna  the  mother  of  Samuel,  and  Anna  who  was  the 
mother  of  the  Virgin.  If  my  skill  does  not  fail  me, 
another  shall  be  added  to  the  list.  Those  three  were 
illustrious  ladies,  but  where  in  all  Europe  will  be 
found   a  lady  more  illustrious   than  yourself?     They 

1  Ep.  xcii.,  abridged. 


Lecture   V.  79 

were  pious,  but  so  are  you.  They  were  tried  by  af- 
fliction :  would  that  this  had  not  been  your  fate  as 
well !  [Much  more  of  these  comparisons,  and  then  :] 
Your  kindness  enables  me  to  live  and  devote  myself 
to  literature.  I  grieve  for  your  sufferings,  but  suffer- 
ings endured  as  you  endure  them  lend  splendour  to 
virtue.  Destiny  has  connected  your  fate  with  mine. 
Fortune's  malice  cannot  reach  to  yourself  on  the 
height  where  you  stand,  but  me  she  persecutes  as  if 
in  my  person  she  would  persecute  learning  itself.  To 
whom  then  can  I  lay  open  my  calamities  better  than 
to  her  who  can  and  will  relieve  them.  This  is  the 
anniversary  of  the  day  on  which  my  small  substance 
on  which  I  depended  for  the  continuation  of  my 
studies  was  shipwrecked  in  England  ;  and  from  that 
day  to  this  misfortune  in  one  form  or  another 
has  never  ceased  to  pursue  me.  When  the  British 
Charybdis  had  vomited  me  back  to  France,  I  was 
overtaken  by  a  tempest.  Then  on  the  road  I  fell 
among  thieves,  and  had  their  daggers  at  my  throat. 
Then  I  was  hunted  out  of  Paris  by  the  plague,  and  I 
had  other  things  to  trouble  me  besides. 

It  is  unworthy  of  me  (a  man  of  letters  and  a  phil- 
osopher) to  be  so  cast  down  as  I  am,  when  you,  who 
were  born  to  rank  and  luxury,  endure  your  trials  so 
patiently.  But  let  Fortune  thunder  as  she  will,  I 
will  not  be  crushed,  and  leave  my  work  undone,  while 
I  have  my  Princess  for  a  Cynosure  to  shine  upon  me. 
Malice  cannot  rob  me  of  the  learning  which  I  have 
gained.  A  little  money  will  enable  me  to  make  use 
of  it,  and  this  you  can  supply  out  of  your  abundance. 
My  muse  I  shall  owe  to  you,  and  she  shall  henceforth 
be  dedicated  to  your  service.  Thee,  dear  Nutricia, 
dear  nurse  of  my  soul,  I  would  not  change  for  Augus- 
tus and  Maecenas,  and  future  ages  will  marvel  that  in 
this  far  corner  of  the  world,  when  learning  lay  pros- 
trate from  neglect  and  ignorance,  a  woman  rose,  who 
by  her  benevolence  restored  learning  from  dust  to 
life.  When  Erasmus  was  mocked  by  promises  which 
were  not  observed  to  him,  when  he  had  been  robbed 


80  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

and  flung'  out  to  buffet  with  the  waves  of  fortune,  you, 
Lady,  did  not  suffer  him  to  drown  in  penury.  Con- 
tinue the  work  which  you  have  begun.  My  writings, 
your  own  children,  reach  out  their  suppliant  hands  to 
you.  By  your  own  fortune,  whose  smiles  you  despise, 
and  whose  frowns  you  defy ;  by  those  writings'  for- 
tune, malignant  always,  against  which  you  alone  can 
support  them  ;  by  that  admirable  Queen,  the  Ancient 
Wisdom,  which  the  Prophet  places  at  God's  right 
hand,  not,  as  she  now  lies,  in  rags  and  squalor,  but  in 
golden  raiment  which  I  have  toiled  to  cleanse  and  to 
restore,  they  beseech  you  not  to  desert  them.  If  I  am 
to  continue  this  work  I  must  visit  Italy.  I  must  show 
myself  there  to  establish  my  personal  consequence.  I 
must  acquire  the  absurd  title  of  Doctor.  It  will  not 
make  me  a  hair  the  better,  but,  as  times  go,  no  man 
now  can  be  counted  learned,  despite  of  all  which 
Christ  has  said,  unless  he  is  styled  Magister.  If  the 
world  is  to  believe  in  me,  I  must  put  on  the  lion's 
skin.  I  have  to  fight  with  monsters,  and  I  must  wear 
the  dress  of  Hercules.  Help  me,  therefore,  gracious 
Lady.  Battus  will  tell  you  how.  It  goes  against  my 
habits,  against  my  nature,  against  my  modesty,  to  sue 
for  favours.  But  necessity  compels  me  and  I  have 
brazened  my  forehead  to  address  you.  From  the  time 
when  I  was  a  child  I  have  been  a  devoted  worshipper 
of  St.  Anne.  I  composed  a  hymn  to  her  when  I  was 
young,  and  the  hymn  I  now  send  to  you,  another 
Anne.  I  send  to  you,  besides,  a  collection  of  prayers 
to  the  Holy  Virgin.  They  are  not  spells  to  charm 
the  moon  out  of  the  sky,  but  they  will  bring  down 
out  of  Heaven  her  who  brought  forth  the  Sun  of 
Righteousness.  She  is  easy  of  approach.  She  will 
hear  the  supplication  of  another  virgin,  for  as  a  vir- 
gin I  hold  you  —  a  maiden,  not  a  widow.  You  were 
married  when  a  girl,  to  please  your  parents.  That 
marriage  brought  no  pleasure  to  you,  it  was  but  a 
discipline  of  patience ;  yet,  though  you  are  still  in 
your  prime,  you  cannot  be  tempted  out  of  your  reso- 
lution of  continency.     I  reckon  you  not  as  one  of  the 


Lecture   V.  81 

choir  of  maidens,  who,  the  Scripture  says,  cannot  be 
numbered ;  I  place  you  not  among  the  concubines  of 
Solomon ;  I  place  you  among  St.  Jerome's  Queens, 
&c.  &c. 

Enough  of  this.  The  complimentary  work  had  to 
be  done,  and  done  it  was,  not  entirely  without  dignity, 
though  it  is  rather  melancholy  reading.  Nowadays, 
the  enlightened  public  has  to  be  flattered  with  equal 
sincerity  or  insincerity.  The  appeal  was,  of  course, 
successful.  Enough  was  given  to  set  Erasmus  free 
from  squalid  care,  and  get  him  the  lion's  skin  that  he 
was  so  anxious  about.  His  biographers  mention  the 
Lady  of  Vere,  but  none  as  yet  with  the  prominence 
which  confers  the  immortal  fame  which  Erasmus 
promised  her.  If  Erasmus  becomes  popular  again, 
the  defect  will  perhaps  be  mended,  and  the  fourth 
Anna  will  be  duly  canonized. 

It  is  noticeable  that  during  this  sad  time  Erasmus 
studied  and  translated  the  greater  part  of  Lucian's 
Dialogues.  I  wish  more  of  us  read  Lucian  now.  He 
was  the  greatest  man  by  far  outside  the  Christian 
Church  in  the  second  century.  He  had  human  blood 
in  him.  The  celestial  ichor  which  ran  in  the  veins  of 
Marcus  Aurelius  and  Epictetus  belongs  to  ghosts 
rather  than  to  living  sons  of  Adam,  and  you  will  learn 
full  as  much  from  Lucian's  Dialogues  of  what  men 
and  women  were  like  in  the  Roman  Empire  when  the 
Christian  faith  was  taking  root  as  you  will  learn  from 
Justin  Martyr  or  Irenaeus  or  Tertullian.  One  of 
these  dialogues  seems  particularly  to  have  struck 
Erasmus,  ricpi  twv  eVi  /uo-0w  o-wovtwv.  Young  men  of 
talent  in  Lucian's  time  were  tempted  by  the  promise 
of  an  easy  life  to  hire  themselves  out  as  companions 
to  wealthy  Roman  nobles  to  write  their  letters,  correct 
their  verses,  amu.^e  their  guests,  and  write  poems  in 


82  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

their  honour.  Lueian  traces  one  of  these  unfortu- 
nates through  his  splendid  degradation,  till  he  is  sup- 
planted by  a  new  favourite  and  flung  aside  like  a 
worn-out  dress.  Too  late  to  return  to  any  honest  em- 
ployment, he  sinks  from  shame  to  shame,  till  he  falls 
to  the  level  of  the  groom  of  the  chamber  and  the 
housekeeper,  and  finally  is  left  in  charge  of  my  Lady's 
pug-dog. 

To  such  a  fate,  doubtless,  many  a  promising  youth 
was  drifting  in  the  fifteenth  century  as  well  as  in  the 
second.  A  high  education  creates  tastes  for  refine- 
ment, and  does  not  provide  the  means  of  satisfying 
them.  Erasmus  had  evidently  felt  the  temptation. 
He  perhaps  actually  tried  such  a  situation  when  liv- 
ing with  the  Bishop  of  Cambray.  Something  like  it 
had  been  offered  him  at  Tournehem  Castle,  and  Lu- 
cian had  possibly  saved  him  from  accepting  it. 

A  far  more  honourable  relic  remains  of  his  con- 
nection with  the  Vere  family  in  the  "  Encheiridion 
Militis  Christiani,"  a  Christian  knight's  manual, 
which  he  began  at  Tournehem,  and  finished  after- 
wards at  the  Lady's  request. 

The  occasion  of  it  was  this.  It  was  like  one  of 
Goethe's  "  Gelegenheits-Gedichte,"  poems  rising  out 
of  special  incidents,  which  Goethe  says  are  always  a 
man's  best.  Erasmus  came  to  write  it  in  this  way  — 
the  account  is  his  own. 

Battus  and  he,  he  says,  had  gone  to  Tournehem  at 
the  invitation  of  the  Lord  of  the  castle,  who  had  been 
his  pupil.  "The  Lord  of  Vere  had  a  wife  of  remark- 
able piety.  He  himself  was  a  pleasant  man  to  live 
with,  but  the  worst  of  profligates,  and  given  to  asso- 
ciating with  abandoned  women.  He  despised  all  re- 
ligious teachers  except  me,  and  his  lady,  in  alarm  for 
his  soul,  asked  me  to  write  something  which  might 


Lecture   V.  83 

brinsf  him  to  a  sense  of  his  condition.  He  was  not  to 
know  that  it  had  been  suggested  by  herself,  for  he 
was  a  rough  soldier,  and  at  times  would  even  strike 
her.  So  I  did  what  she  desired."  And  the  world 
was  thus  made  the  richer  by  the  finest  of  Erasmus's 
minor  compositions. 

The  money  difficulties  being  got  rid  of,  at  least  for 
a  time,  the  Italian  journey  in  search  of  the  lion's  skin 
could  now  come  off.  For  some  reason  it  was  still 
delayed  for  two  or  three  years.  In  the  interval  it  is 
certain  that  Erasmus  went  back  to  England.  The 
letters  are  lost  which  gave  detailed  pictures  of  this 
second  visit ;  but  the  date  of  his  introduction  to  the 
royal  princes  at  Eltham  is  fixed  by  his  mention  of 
their  ages.  Pie  was  with  Grocyn  at  Lambeth  just 
after  Warham  was  made  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
so  that  he  was  undoubtedly  in  England  in  1501  or 
1502.  He  was  a  volatile,  restless  gentleman,  and  to 
follow  him  through  his  movements  at  this  time  is  like 
chasing  a  will-o'-the-wisp.  There  is  proof  that  he 
was  lecturing  on  Greek  at  Cambridge  in  1506, 
though  again  we  have  no  particulars  of  what  he  did 
there,  or  of  how  long  he  stayed.  The  Italian  journey 
must  be  placed  between  these  two  English  visits,  for 
it  is  equally  certain  that  he  was  at  Bologna  in  1504, 
and  saw  Julius  there. 

Mountjoy  and  Grey  had  after  all  offered  to  take 
him  with  them  to  Italy,  but  with  money  in  his  pocket 
he  preferred  to  be  free.  Colet  had  sent  him  as  pupils 
the  two  sons  of  a  Doctor  Baptista,  who  was  a  court 
physician  to  Henry  VII.  The  boys  were  to  make  the 
Italian  tour  in  charge  of  another  tutor.  The  Baptis- 
tas  were  rich.  By  attaching  himself  to  their  party, 
Erasmus  could  diminish  his  expenses.  lie  agreed  to 
accompany  them  as  an  independent  friend.     "  I  did 


84  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

not  take  charge  of  them,"  he  said.  "  I  declined  to 
be  responsible  for  their  behaviour,  but  I  was  to  act  as 
general  guide  and  overlooker.*' 

The  plan  did  not  answer.  The  party  consisted  of 
Erasmus,  the  two  Baptista  lads,  their  English  tutor, 
and  a  courier,  who  was  to  see  them  safe  to  Boloa'na. 
The  tutor  and  courier  quarrelled  and  fought.  "  At 
first,"  says  Erasmus,  "  I  thought  only  one  of  them 
was  in  fault,  but  they  made  friends  again  over  a  bot- 
tle, and  I  then  disliked  them  both  equally.  Men  who 
fall  out  without  a  cause,  and  then  are  reconciled  with 
as  little  reason,  do  not  suit  me.  I  determined  to 
have  no  more  to  say  to  them,  and  I  amused  myself  in 
the  passage  of  the  Alps  with  composing  a  poem  on 
old  age." 

From  which  it  appears  that  Erasmus  had  no  taste 
for  what  we  call  the  sublime  and  beautiful.  Like 
Socrates,  he  had  no  interest  in  scenery,  and  cared 
only  for  men  and  human  things.  The  party  sepa- 
rated ;  Erasmus  went  on  by  himself,  preceded  by  his 
reputation,  which  secured  him  a  gracious  reception. 
He  received  the  coveted  lion's  skin,  and,  as  he  fore- 
told, was  not  a  hair  the  better  for  it ;  but  great  men 
invited  him  to  their  houses  as  they  had  done  in  Eng- 
land ;  he  was  introduced  to  bishops  and  cardinals, 
and  even  to  the  great  Julius  II.  himself,  who  was 
exchanging  his  Pope's  robes  for  the  steel  cap  and 
jacket.  Julius  was  no  sooner  on  the  throne  than  he 
had  large  schemes  for  the  unification  of  Italy,  hum- 
bling the  Venetians,  and  driving  out  the  foreigner. 
You  have  seen  his  portrait  in  the  National  Gallery  — 
a  grand  old  man,  sitting  in  his  chair  and  looking  like 
a  slumbering  volcano.  He  had  heard  of  Erasmus  as 
an  accomplished  writer.  He  asked  him  to  set  out  his 
projects  in  some  flourishing  pamphlet,  and  Erasmus 


Lecture  V.  85 

might  have  made  his  fortune  if  he  had  complied. 
He  did  write  something,  but  not  what  his  Holiness 
wanted.  Erasmus  disliked  wars  and  disliked  warlike 
popes,  and  threw  away  his  chance,  and  preferred  to 
be  a  spectator.  The  great  Pope  cared  little  whether 
an  insignificant  Dutch  scribbler  liked  him  or  did  n't 
like  him.  He  took  the  field  with  his  army,  drove  the 
French  out  of  Lombardy,  defeated  the  Venetians,  an- 
nexed Bologna  to  the  Papal  Territory,  and  celebrated 
his  victory  by  a  triumphal  entry  into  the  city  which 
recalled  the  memories  of  Caesar  and  Pompey.  Eras- 
mus himself  witnessed  the  extraordinary  scene,  and 
made  his  reflections  on  it,  which  he  preserved  for 
future  use.  He  travelled  afterwards  on  his  own 
account,  went  to  Sienna  and  lectured  there,  and  had 
among  his  pupils  a  youth  whom  he  described  as  of 
extraordinary  promise,  the  young  Archbishop  of  St. 
Andrews,  a  lad  of  twenty,  natural  son  of  James  IV., 
who  was  killed  a  few  years  later  fighting  at  his  fa- 
ther's side  at  Flodden.  You  must  exert  your  imagi- 
nation to  realize  what  popes  and  archbishops  were 
like  in  those  days. 

At  Rome  he  met  with  more  than  kindness.  Italian 
art  was  at  its  highest  point  of  glory.  It  was  the 
Rome  of  Pcrugino  and  Raphael  and  Michael  Angelo. 
In  the  College  of  Cardinals  there  was  the  ease  and 
grace  of  intellectual  cultivation  exactly  calculated  to 
charm  and  delight  Erasmus.  The  cardinals  them- 
selves  saw  his  value,  and  wished  to  keep  him  among 
them.  The  Cardinal  of  St.  George  became  an  inti- 
mate friend,  and  remained  afterwards  the  most 
trusted  of  his  correspondents.  Strange  alternation  of 
fortune !  —  one  year  begging  for  a  few  crowns,  the 
next  courted  and  sued  to  by  the  splendid  princes  of 
the  Church.     He  had  but  to  consent  to  stay  at  Rome 


86  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

and  his  rise  to  the  highest  dignities  would  have  been 
certain  and  rapid.  The  temptation  was  strong. 
Long  after,  when  the  pinch  of  poverty  came  again 
with  its  attendant  humiliations,  he  admitted  that  he 
looked  back  wistfully  to  the  Roman  libraries  and  pal- 
aces, and  glorious  art,  and  magnificent  and  refined 
society.  All  that  might  be  his  if  he  would  consent  to 
become  a  red-hatted  lackey  of  the  Holy  See.  Yet, 
strong  as  the  inclination  might  be  to  yield,  his  love  of 
freedom  was  stronger  —  freedom  and  the  high  pur- 
pose of  his  life,  which  must  be  abandoned  for  ever  if 
he  once  consented  to  put  on  the  golden  chain.  He 
might  stoop  to  beg  for  alms  from  bishops  and  great 
ladies :  he  could  not,  woidd  not  stoop  to  prostitute 
his  talents. 

Thus  he  left  Rome  as  he  had  come,  carrying  only 
with  him  the  respect  and  regard  of  the  Cardinal  of 
St.  George  and  the  more  famous  Cardinal  who  was  to 
succeed  Julius  as  Leo  X.  He  went  back  to  Paris 
poor  as  ever,  or  nearly  so,  for  the  lady's  supplies  were 
spent ;  but  he  set  himself  stubbornly  to  work  again. 
On  his  return  he  heard  the  pleasant  news  that  his 
friend  Colet  had  been  made  Dean  of  St.  Paul's.  He 
wrote  to  congratulate  him;  promotion  coming,  as  it 
ought  to  do,  on  the  deserving  who  had  not  sought  for 
it.  He  hopes  that  Colet  has  not  forgotten  his  little 
friend,  and  would  spare  an  hour  to  let  him  know  of 
his  welfare.  He  then  describes  his  own  condition  and 
occupation.1 

I  am  rushing  full  speed  into  sacred  literature,  and 
look  at  nothing  which  keeps  me  back  from  it.  For- 
tune wears  her  old  face  and  is  still  a  difficulty.  I 
hope  now  that  I  have  returned  to  France  to  put  my 
affairs  on  a  slightly  better  footing.     This  done,  I  shall 

1  Ep.  cii.,  abridged. 


Lecture   V.  87 

sit  down  to  Holy  Scripture  with  my  whole  heart,  and 
devote  the  rest  of  ray  life  to  it.  Three  years  ago  I 
wrote  something-  on  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  I 
finished  four  sheets  at  a  burst,  and  I  should  have  gone 
on  had  I  been  able.  Want  of  knowledge  of  Greek 
kept  me  back,  but  for  all  these  three  years  I  have 
been  working  entirely  at  Greek,  and  have  not  been 
playing  with  it.  I  have  begun  Hebrew  too,  but  make 
small  progress  owing  to  the  difficulty  of  the  construc- 
tion.    I  am  not  so  young  as  I  was,  besides. 

I  have  also  read  a  great  part  of  Origen,  who  opens 
out  new  fountains  of  thought  and  furnishes  a  com- 
plete key  to  theology.  I  send  you  a  small  composi- 
tion of  my  own  on  a  subject  over  which  we  argued 
when  I  was  in  England.  It  is  so  changed  you  would 
not  know  it  again.  I  did  not  write  to  show  off  my 
knowledge.  It  is  directed  against  the  notion  that 
religion  consists  of  ceremonies  and  a  worse  than  Jew- 
ish ritual.  I  wrote  to  you  about  the  hundred  copies 
of  the  "  Adagia  "  which  I  sent  over  to  England  three 
years  back.  Grocyn  undertook  to  sell  them  for  me, 
and  has  probably  done  so.  In  this  case  they  must 
have  brought  in  money,  which  must  be  in  somebody's 
hands.  I  was  never  in  worse  straits  than  I  am  now. 
One  way  or  another  I  must  get  enough  to  secure  lei- 
sure for  myself  and  my  work.  A  little  will  do.  Help 
me  as  far  as  you  can.  Mountjoy  too  may  contribute 
something,  though  I  do  not  like  to  ask  him.  Mount- 
joy  was  always  interested  in  me,  and  to  him  I  owe 
my  first  conception  of  the  "  Adagia." 

It  must  have  been  shortly  after  writing  this  letter 
that  Erasmus  went  for  a  third  time  to  England  — 
about  the  close  of  the  year  1505  —  and  resided  and 
lectured  for  some  months  at  Cambridge.  He  perhaps 
found  that  his  finances  prospered  better  where  he  had 
so  many  wealthy  acquaintances.  It  is  certain,  too, 
that  during  this  visit  he  again  saw  young  Prince 
Henry,  and  had  become  personally   known  to  him. 


88  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

This  can  be  proved  by  a  letter  addressed  by  Henry  to 
him  in  answer  to  a  letter  of  Erasmus  on  the  death  of 
his  uncle  Philip,  King-  of  Castile.  Philip,  the  father 
of  Charles  V.,  had  married  Joanna,  sister  of  Cathe- 
rine of  Aragon.  He  had  assumed  the  title  of  King  of 
Castile  on  the  death  of  his  mother-in-law  Isabella. 
He  had  died  suddenly  in  1506,  and  Erasmus  was  on 
terms  of  sufficient  intimacy  with  the  Prince  of  Wales 
to  write  a  letter  of  condolence  on  the  occasion. 
Henry  was  then  fifteen.  Here  is  his  answer.1  It 
refers,  as  you  will  see,  to  Philip's  death  as  having 
recently  happened.  At  the  head  of  the  letter  stands, 
"  Jesus  est  spes  inea,"  and  it  proceeds  thus :  — 

Your  letter  charms  me,  most  eloquent  Erasmus. 
The  writing  shows  by  the  care  which  you  have  taken 
that  it  is  no  hasty  composition,  while  I  can  see  from 
its  clearness  and  simplicity  that  it  has  not  been  arti- 
ficially laboured.  Clever  men  when  they  wish  to  be 
concise  are  often  affected  and  unintelligible.  It  is 
not  for  me  to  commend  a  style  which  all  the  world 
praises,  nor  if  I  tried  could  I  say  as  much  as  your 
merit  deserves.  I  will  therefore  leave  all  that.  It  is 
better  not  to  praise  at  all  than  to  praise  inadequately. 
I  had  heard  before  your  letter  reached  me  that  the 
King  of  Castile  was  dead.  Would  that  the  news  had 
proved  false.  I  have  never  been  more  grieved  since 
I  lost  my  mother,  and,  to  confess  the  truth,  that  part 
of  your  letter  pleased  me  less  than  the  grace  of  the 
language  deserved.  Time  has  partially  alleviated  the 
pain  of  the  wound.  What  the  Gods  decree  mortals 
must  learn  to  bear.  When  you  have  news  more 
agreeable  to  communicate,  do  not  fail  to  let  me  hear 
from  you. 

This  letter,  though  perhaps  slightly  ironical,  proves 
that   Erasmus   had   more   acquaintance  with   Henry 

1  Ep.  ecccli.,  second  series. 


Lecture   V.  89 

than  can  be  explained  by  their  meeting  at  Eltham 
when  the  Prince  was  a  child.  Erasmus  could  not 
have  ventured  to  write  to  him  without  fuller  justifica- 
tion. It  may  serve  as  evidence,  therefore,  that  Eras- 
mus had  again  had  opportunities  of  making  himself 
known  to  the  Prince,  and  was  regarded  by  him  as  a 
person  of  consideration. 

Still  it  is  equally  clear  that  he  had  as  yet  gained 
no  footing  in  England  beyond  the  humble  position  of 
a  Cambridge  lecturer. 

It  is  said  that  Wolsey  did  not  like  him ;  very  prob- 
ably the  old  king  looked  on  him  as  an  adventurer, 
and  did  not  like  him  also.  Nothing  had  come  in  his 
way  save  an  offer  of  a  benefice  from  Warham,  which 
he  honourably  declined  because  he  coidd  not  preach 
to  his  parishioners  in  English,  and  some  sort  of  a 
tedious  professorship  at  Cambridge,  where  he  had  to 
teach  the  elements  of  Greek  to  schoolboys.  He  had 
higher  ambitions,  which,  it  seemed,  were  not  to  be 
realized  for  him  in  England,  and  his  thoughts  turned 
once  more  to  his  friends  the  cardinals  at  Rome.  At 
Rome  he  might  have  to  submit  to  harness,  and  the 
sacrifice  would  be  a  bitter  one.  But  the  harness 
woidd  be  better  gilded  than  at  Cambridge.  There 
were  the  libraries  ;  there  was  appreciation  from  the 
ruling  powers,  which  would  leave  him  leisure  for  his 
work ;  and  he  might  edit  his  Fathers,  perhaps  his 
New  Testament,  under  the  patronage  of  popes  like 
Julius  or  Leo  X. 

This  is  only  conjecture.  The  certainty  is  that  two 
years  before  Henry  VII.  died  Erasmus  left  England 
again,  and  once  more  joined  his  friend  Cardinal  Ra- 
phael at  the  Holy  City.  There  he  appears  to  have 
decided  finally  to  remain,  when  his  future  was  once 
more  changed  by  two  letters  which  reached  him  while 
Cardinal  Raphael's  guest. 


90  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

One  was  from  his  friend  Mountjoy,  to  announce  the 
accession  of  Henry  VIII.,  and  the  desire  of  the  new 
king  to  attach  Erasmus  to  his  own  Court,  a  desire 
which  Henry  had  himself  confirmed  under  his  own 
hand.  Nothing  could  be  more  brilliant  than  the 
prospect  which  Mountjoy  announced  to  him.1  The 
resolution  to  recall  him  seems  to  have  been  one  of  the 
first  acts  of  the  new  reign.  We  remember  Solon  say- 
ing that  no  one  should  be  counted  happy  before  his 
death.  You  will  observe  that  the  King  here  described 
was  Henry  VIII. 

What,  my  dear  Erasmus,  may  you  not  look  for 
from  a  prince,  whose  great  qualities  no  one  knows 
better  than  yourself,  and  who  not  only  is  no  stranger 
to  you,  but  esteems  you  so  highly !  He  has  written 
to  you,  as  you  will  perceive,  under  his  own  hand,  an 
honour  which  falls  but  to  few.  Could  you  but  see 
how  nobly  he  is  bearing  himself,  how  wise  he  is,  his 
love  for  all  that  is  good  and  right,  and  specially  his 
love  for  men  of  learning,  you  would  need  no  wings  to 
fly  into  the  light  of  this  new  risen  and  salutary  star. 
Oh,  Erasmus,  could  you  but  witness  the  universal  joy, 
could  you  but  see  how  proud  our  people  are  of  their 
new  sovereign,  you  would  weep  for  pleasure.  Heaven 
smiles,  earth  triumphs,  and  flows  with  milk  and  honey 
and  nectar.  This  king  of  ours  is  no  seeker  after  gold, 
or  gems,  or  mines  of  silver.  He  desires  only  the  fame 
of  virtue  and  eternal  life.  I  was  lately  in  his  pres- 
ence. He  said  that  he  regretted  that  he  was  still  so 
ignorant ;  I  told  him  that  the  nation  did  not  want 
him  to  be  himself  learned,  the  nation  wanted  him 
only  to  encourage  learning.  He  replied  that  without 
knowledge  life  would  not  be  worth  our  having. 

I  received  your  letter  from  Rome,  and  I  read  it  with 
mingled  grief  and  pleasure :  pleasure,  because  you 
opened  to  me  all  your  cares  and  anxieties ;  grief,  be- 
cause it  showed  me  that  Fortune  wears  her  old  face  to 
you,  and  that  you  still  suffer  from  her  buffets.     Be- 

1  Ep.  x. 


Lecture   V.  91 

lieve  me,  an  end  has  come  now  to  all  your  distresses. 
Yon  have  only  to  accept  the  invitation  of  a  prince  who 
offers  you  wealth,  honour,  and  distinction. 

"  Accipe  divitias  et  vatum  maxinms  esto."  You  say 
you  owe  much  to  myself.  Mine  is  the  obligation,  my 
debt  to  you  is  more  than  I  can  ever  pay. 

I  have  the  copy  of  your  "  Adagia,"  with  the  graceful 
compliment  to  myself.  All  here  praise  the  book. 
Archbishop  Warham  is  so  charmed  with  it  that  I  can- 
not get  it  out  of  his  hands.  He  undertakes,  if  you 
will  come  to  us,  that  some  benefice  shall  be  found  for 
you.  He  sends  you  five  pounds  for  the  expenses  of 
your  journey,  and  I  add  as  much  more.  Come  quickly, 
therefore,  and  do  not  torture  us  with  expectation. 
Never  suppose  that  I  do  not  prize  your  letters,  or  that 
I  can  be  offended  with  anything  which  you  may  say  or 
do.  I  am  sorry  that  you  have  been  unwell  in  Italy. 
I  did  not  wish  you  to  go  there,  but  I  regret  that  I  was 
not  your  companion  when  I  see  how  much  the  Romans 
make  of  you. 

So  far  Mountjoy  —  Lord  Mountjoy  now,  for  his 
father  was  dead,  and  he  had  succeeded  to  the  estate 
and  title.     The  young  king  wrote  as  follows  : 1  — 

I  am  sorry,  as  your  constant  friend  and  admirer,  to 
learn  from  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  that  you 
have  ill-wishers  who  have  done  you  injury,  and  that 
you  have  been  in  some  danger  from  them.  Our  ac- 
quaintance began  when  I  was  a  boy.  The  regard  which 
I  then  learnt  to  feel  for  you  has  been  increased  by 
the  honourable  mention  which  you  have  made  of  me 
in  your  writings,  and  by  the  use  to  which  you  have 
applied  your  talents  in  the  advancement  of  Christian 
truth.  So  far  you  have  borne  your  burden  alone ; 
give  me  the  pleasure  of  assisting  and  protecting  you 
as  far  as  my  power  extends.  It  has  been  and  is  my 
earnest  wish  to  restore  Christ's  religion  to  its  primitive 
purity,  and  to  employ  whatever  talents  and  means  I 
have  in  extinguishing  heresy  and  giving  free  course  to 

1  Ep.  ccccl.,  second  series,  abridged. 


92  Life,  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

the  Word  of  God.  We  live  iu  evil  times,  and  the 
world  grows  worse  instead  of  better.  I  am  the  more 
sorry  therefore  for  the  ill-treatment  which  you  have 
met  with,  and  which  is  a  misfortune  to  Christianity  it- 
self. Your  welfare  is  precious  to  us  all.  If  you  are 
taken  away  nothing  can  then  stop  the  spread  of  heresy 
and  impiety.  I  propose  therefore  that  you  abandon 
the  thought  of  settling  elsewhere.  Come  to  England, 
and  assure  yourself  of  a  hearty  welcome.  You  shall 
name  your  own  terms  ;  they  shall  be  as  liberal  and 
honourable  as  you  please.  I  recollect  that  you  once 
said  that  when  you  were  tired  of  wandering  you  would 
make  this  country  the  home  of  your  old  age.  I  be- 
seech you  by  all  that  is  holy  and  good,  carry  out  this 
purpose  of  yours.  We  have  not  now  to  learn  the  value 
either  of  your  acquirements  or  your  advice.  We  shall 
regard  your  presence  among  us  as  the  most  precious 
possession  that  we  have.  Nowhere  in  the  world  will 
you  find  safer  shelter  from  anxiety  or  persecution  ; 
and  you  and  we  together,  with  our  joint  counsels  and 
resources,  will  build  again  the  Gospel  of  Christ.  You 
will  not  be  without  friends ;  you  have  many  already 
here.  Our  highest  nobles  know  and  appreciate  you  ; 
I  will  myself  introduce  you  among  them.  You  re- 
quire your  leisure  for  yourself.  We  shall  ask  nothing 
of  you  save  to  make  our  Realm  your  home.  You 
shall  do  as  you  like,  your  time  shall  be  your  own. 
Everything  shall  be  provided  for  you  which  will 
ensure  your  comfort  or  assist  your  studies.  Come  to 
us,  therefore,  my  dear  Erasmus,  and  let  your  presence 
be  your  answer  to  my  invitation. 

The  situation  which  the  young  Henry  intended  for 
Erasmus  when  he  wrote  this  letter  was  evidently  some 
office  close  about  his  own  person.  The  passage  about 
advice  pointed  to  the  Privy  Council.  At  any  rate,  he 
was  to  be  associated  with  the  King  in  the  most  inter- 
esting and  important  duties.  No  wonder  that  so  in- 
vited he  needed  no  wings,  as  Mountjoy  said,  to  fly  to 
a  court  where  honour  and  leisure  seemed  to  be  wait- 
ing for  him. 


LECTURE  VI. 

The  young  Henry  VIII.  had  invited  Erasmus  to 
England  in  terms  which  entitled  him  to  think  that  a 
considerable  position  awaited  him  there.  He  was  to 
be  the  King's  adviser  in  an  intended  Church  reform. 
He  was  to  name  his  own  terms.  He  was  to  have  his 
leisure  for  himself  and  his  work.  He  was  no  longer 
an  adventurer.  He  had  a  world-wide  reputation.  He 
was  a  favourite  of  the  Roman  Cardinals.  He  was 
known  to  be  preparing  an  edition  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment with  a  fresh  translation.  He  had  been  at  work 
over  the  Greek  MSS.  for  many  years.  The  work  was 
approaching  completion,  and  if  he  had  remained  at 
Rome  it  would  have  appeared  under  the  patronage  of 
the  Holy  See.  He  might  fairly  have  concluded  (and 
he  did  conclude)  that  he  would  find  rank  and  fortune 
in  England  (going  there  as  he  did  at  the  earnest  and 
warm  entreaty  of  the  King  himself)  equivalent  to  his 
present  station  in  the  world  of  letters.  Doubtless  this 
had  been  the  intention.  But  the  King's  hands  were 
full  of  other  business.  He  had  a  rebellious  Ireland 
on  hand.  He  had  a  corrupt  administration  to  reform, 
as  well  as  the  Church.  He  had  corrupt  ministers  to 
punish.  He  had  a  war  with  France  coming  on  upon 
hi  in,  undertaken  for  the  defence  of  the  Pope.  You 
will  find  the  objects  of  the  war  concisely  and  correctly 
stated  in  the  preamble  to  the  Subsidy  Act,  where 
Parliament  provided  the  means.  The  French  war 
does  not  concern  us  here  further  than  it  explains  how 


94  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus, 

Henry,  after  having-  secured  Erasmus's  presence  In 
his  realm,  was  obliged  to  hand  over  the  charge  of  him 
to  Warham,  who  was  now  Primate  and  Chancellor. 
A  Church  benefice  was  the  natural  resource.  Cardi- 
nals drew  their  revenues  from  benefices  piled  one 
upon  another,  with  small  thought  of  the  duties  attach- 
ing to  them.  If  Erasmus  had  remained  at  Eome,  he 
must  have  done  like  the  rest.  But  his  passion  was  to 
expose  and  correct  the  abuses  which  had  crept  over 
the  Church  administration.  He  had  not  come  to 
England  for  an  ecclesiastical  sinecure.  Warham  had 
already  offered  him  a  benefice,  and  he  had  declined, 
because  he  coidd  not  preach  in  English.  Again  War- 
ham pressed  a  living  on  him,  the  best  that  he  had  in 
his  gift,  Aldington  in  Kent,  worth  sixty  pounds  a 
year,  or  six  hundred  of  our  money.  He  accepted  it  at 
last,  finding,  I  suppose,  that  nothing  else  could  be 
done  for  him ;  but  again,  either  the  same  scruple,  or 
an  unwillingness  to  be  buried  in  the  country  far  away 
from  books,  made  him  repent  of  his  resolution  almost 
as  soon  as  he  had  resigned  himself  to  his  fate.  He 
relinquished  Aldington  in  six  months,  and  Warham 
sacrificed  the  parish  to  his  friendship.  Instead  of  the 
living  of  Aldington  the  Archbishop  settled  a  pension 
on  him  equivalent  to  the  value  of  it,  which  was 
charged,  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  time,  on  the 
tithes.  Aldington  had  to  content  itself  with  an  ill- 
paid  curate,  under  whom,  curiously  enough,  it  pro- 
duced in  the  next  generation  the  famous  Nun  of  Kent, 
whose  imposture  was  to  threaten  Henry's  throne. 
The  pension,  however,  was  made  sure  to  Erasmus  for 
the  rest  of  his  life.  Warham  saw  it  paid  till  he  died, 
and  it  was  continued  afterwards  by  Cranmer.  An 
assured  income  of  sixty  pounds,  at  a  time  when  a 
country  squire  was  counted  rich  who  had  forty,  might 


Lecture   VI.  95 

have  been  thought  enough  to  keep  the  wolf  from 
a  scholar's  door.  Lord  Mountjoy,  who  felt  himself 
responsible  for  Erasmus's  return,  promised  as  much 
more,  and  afterwards  kept  his  word.  Thus,  so  far  as 
money  went,  he  had  nothing  to  complain  of. 

Evidently,  however,  he  was  not  satisfied.  It  was 
not  what  he  had  looked  for.  He  had  expected,  per- 
haps, to  be  admitted  formally  into  the  Privy  Council. 
He  had  expected  —  one  knows  not  what  he  had  ex- 
pected ;  but  he  began  to  look  back  on  Rome  again 
with  a  sense  that  he  had  made  a  mistake  in  leaving  it. 
His  feelings  are  frankly  expressed  in  a  letter  to  the 
Cardinal  Grymanus.     He  says  : :  — 

I  had  many  friends  in  England.  Large  promises 
were  held  out  to  me,  and  the  King  himself  seemed  to 
be  my  special  friend.  England  was  my  adopted 
country.  I  had  meant  always  that  it  should  be  the 
home  of  my  old  age.  I  was  invited  over.  I  was 
pressed  to  go.  I  was  promised  rivers  of  gold,  and, 
though  I  am  generally  careless  of  money,  I  had  looked 
to  find  a  stream  of  it  running  fuller  than  Pactolus.  I 
rather  flew  than  went.  Do  I  repent  ?  Well,  I  will 
be  perfectly  frank.  When  I  think  of  Rome,  and  all 
its  charms  and  all  its  advantages,  yes,  I  do  repent. 
Rome  is  the  centre  of  the  world.  In  Rome  is  liberty. 
In  Rome  are  the  splendid  libraries.  In  Rome  one 
meets  and  converses  with  men  of  learning*.  In  Rome 
are  the  magnificent  monuments  of  the  past.  On 
Rome  are  fastened  the  eyes  of  mankind,  and  in  Rome 
are  the  cardinals,  yourself  the  foremost  among  them, 
who  were  so  wonderfully  good  to  me.  My  position  in 
England  was  not  amiss,  but  it  was  not  what  I  had 
been  led  to  expect,  and  was  not  what  had  been  prom- 
ised to  me.  The  cause,  perhaps,  lay  in  the  misfor- 
tunes of  the  time.  The  King  was  kind,  no  one  could 
be  more  so ;  but  he  was  carried  away  by  a  sudden 
storm  of  war.  He  was  young,  high-minded,  and 
1  Ep.  clxvii.,  abridged. 


9G  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

strongly  influenced  by  religion.  He  went  into  it  en- 
thusiastically, to  defend  the  Holy  See  against  French 
aggression.  Mountjoy,  who,  except  the  Bishop  of 
Cambray,  was  my  earliest  patron,  became  so  much 
absorbed  in  military  matters  that,  although  he  was 
willing  as  ever  to  help  me,  he  was  not  then  able  ;  and, 
moreover,  though  one  of  the  old  nobility,  and  liberally 
disposed  towards  men  of  learning,  he  is  not  rich  ac- 
cording to  the  standard  of  the  English  peerage.  The 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  did  all  for  me  that  was 
possible.  He  is  one  of  the  best  of  men  and  an  honour 
to  the  realm  —  wise,  judicious,  learned  above  all  his 
contemporaries,  and  so  modest  that  he  is  unconscious 
of  his  superiority.  Under  a  quiet  manner  he  is  witty, 
energetic,  and  laborious.  He  is  experienced  in  busi- 
ness. He  has  played  a  distinguished  part  in  foreign 
embassies.  Besides  being  Primate,  he  is  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, the  highest  judicial  office  in  the  realm ;  yet, 
with  all  his  greatness,  he  has  been  father  and  mother 
to  me,  and  has  partly  made  up  to  me  what  I  sacrificed 
in  leaving  Rome  ;  but  .  .  .  but  — 

In  short,  the  Erasmus  who  was  shortly  to  be  the 
world-famous  enemy  of  monks  and  obscurantists,  the 
sun  of  a  darkened  world,  was  no  longer  the  obscure 
student  who  had  come  to  England  thirteen  years  be- 
fore in  search  of  patronage  and  employment.  He  felt 
himself  the  equal  of  the  best  of  those  who  were  play- 
ing their  parts  in  the  Royal  circle,  and  he  had  looked 
to  be  treated  accordingly.  He  was  disappointed. 
There  was  no  Pactolus  overflowing  its  banks  for  him. 
He  was  provided  with  a  moderate  income.  He  was 
left  free  to  do  as  he  pleased  and  go  where  he  pleased, 
and  that  was  all. 

Liberty,  however,  then  and  always  was  the  most 
precious  of  all  possessions  to  him,  and  no  one  could 
make  a  better  use  of  it.  He  had  two  friends  in  Eng- 
land between  whom  and  himself  there  grew  up  a  more 


Lecture    VI.  97 

than  affectionate  intimacy.  With  Dean  Colet  he 
travelled  about  the  country,  helped  him  to  found  the 
St.  Paul's  School  where  the  late  Master  of  Balliol  was 
bred,  went  on  pilgrimages,  went  to  the  shrine  of  our 
Lady  of  Walsinghain,  visited  Becket's  tomb  at  Can- 
terbury, saw  the  saint's  dirty  shoes  which  were  offered 
to  the  pious  to  kiss,  and  gathered  the  materials  for 
the  excellent  pictures  of  England  and  English  life 
which  are  scattered  through  his  Colloquies.  With 
Thomas  More,  who  was  soon  to  be  knighted,  he  re- 
sided when  in  London,  at  the  new  house  which  More 
had  built  at  Chelsea.  And  he  has  left  portraits  in 
words  of  these  two  remarkable  men  as  exquisite  as 
Holbein's  drawings  of  them. 

I  shall  detain  you  a  little  over  these  portraits. 
Our  own  great  countrymen  are  as  interesting  to  us  as 
Erasmus  himself,  and  the  age  and  the  men,  and  what 
they  did  and  said,  stand  as  fresh  before  us  in  Eras- 
mus's story  as  if  we  saw  and  heard  them  ourselves. 

I  keep  to  Erasmus's  own  words,  with  a  few  com- 
pressions and  omissions  : *  — 

Colet  was  born  in  London,  1466,  a  few  months 
before  Erasmus  himself.  His  father  was  twice  Lord 
Mayor.  He  was  the  eldest  of  twenty-two  children,  of 
whom  he  was  the  only  survivor,  tall  in  stature,  and 
well-looking  in  face.  In  youth  he  studied  scholas- 
tic theology,  then  read  Cicero,  and  Plato,  and  Ploti- 
nus,  aud  made  himself  a  first-rate  mathematician. 
He  went  abroad,  travelled  in  France  and  Italy,  kept 
up  his  Scotus  and  Aquinas,  but  worked  besides  at  the 
Early  Christian  Fathers,  while  Dante  and  Petrarch 
polished  his  language.  Returning  to  England,  he 
left  London,  settled  at  Oxford,  and  lectured  on  St. 
Paid.  It  was  then  that  my  acquaintance  with  him 
began,  he  being  then  thirty,  I  two  or  three  months  his 

1  Ep.  ccccxxxv. 


98  Life    and  Letters   of  Erasmus. 

junior.  He  had  no  theological  degree,  but  the  whole 
University,  doctors  and  all,  went  to  hear  him.  Henry 
VII.  took  note  of  him,  and  made  him  Dean  of  St. 
Paul's.  His  first  step  was  to  restore  discipline  in  the 
Chapter,  which  had  all  gone  to  wreck.  He  preached 
every  saint's  day  to  great  crowds.  He  cut  down  the 
household  expenses,  and  abolished  suppers  and  even- 
ing parties.  At  dinner  a  boy  reads  a  chapter  from 
Scripture.  Colet  takes  a  passage  from  it,  and  dis- 
courses to  the  universal  delight.  Conversation  is  his 
chief  pleasure,  and  he  will  keep  it  up  till  midnight  if 
he  finds  a  companion.  Me  he  has  often  taken  with 
him  in  his  walks,  and  talks  all  the  time  of  Christ. 
He  hates  coarse  language ;  furniture,  dress,  food, 
books,  all  clean  and  tidy,  but  scrupulously  plain,  and 
he  wears  grey  woollen  when  priests  generally  go  in 
purple.  With  the  large  fortune  which  he  inherited 
from  his  father  he  founded  and  endowed  a  school  at 
St.  Paul's  entirely  at  his  own  cost  —  masters,  houses, 
salaries,  every  thing. 

There  is  an  entrance  examination ;  no  boy  admitted 
who  cannot  read  and  write.  The  scholars  are  in  four 
classes,  a  compartment  in  the  schoolroom  for  each. 
Above  the  head-master's  chair  is  a  picture  of  the 
child  Christ  in  the  act  of  teaching ;  the  Father  in  the 
air  above,  with  a  scroll  saying  "  Hear  ye  Him." 
These  words  were  introduced  at  my  suggestion.  The 
boys  salute  and  sing  a  hymn  on  entering  and  leaving. 
Dormitory  and  dining-room  are  open  and  undivided, 
and  each  boy  has  his  own  place. 

The  foundation  has  been  extremely  costly,  but  he 
did  it  all  himself,  and  in  selecting  trustees  (I  beg  you 
to  observe  this)  he  chose  neither  bishops  nor  priests, 
nor  members  of  his  own  Cathedral  Chapter.  He  ap- 
pointed a  committee  of  married  laymen  of  honest  rep- 
utation, and  being  asked  his  reason,  he  said  all  human 
arrangements  were  uncertain,  but  he  had  observed 
generally  that  such  persons  were  more  conscientious 
and  honest  than  priests. 

He  was  a  man  of  genuine  piety.     He  was  not  born 


Lecture  VI.  99 

with  it.  He  was  naturally  hot,  impetuous,  and  resent- 
ful—  indolent,  fond  of  pleasure  and  of  women's  so- 
ciety —  disposed  to  make  a  joke  of  everything.  He 
told  me  that  he  had  fought  against  his  faults  with 
study,  fasting,  and  prayer,  and  thus  his  whole  life 
was,  in  fact,  unpolluted  with  the  world's  defilements. 
His  money  he  gave  all  to  pious  uses,  worked  inces- 
santly, talked  always  on  serious  subjects  to  conquer 
his  disposition  to  levity ;  not  but  what  you  could  see 
traces  of  the  old  Adam  when  wit  was  flying  at  feast 
or  festival.  He  avoided  large  parties  for  this  reason. 
He  dined  on  a  single  dish,  with  a  draught  or  two  of 
light  ale.  He  liked  good  wine,  but  abstained  on  prin- 
ciple. I  never  knew  a  man  of  sunnier  nature.  No 
one  ever  more  enjoyed  cultivated  society ;  but  here, 
too,  he  denied  himself,  and  was  always  thinking  of  the 
life  to  come. 

His  opinions  were  peculiar,  and  he  was  reserved  in 
expressing  them  for  fear  of  exciting  suspicion.  He 
knew  how  unfairly  men  judge  each  other,  how  credu- 
lous they  are  of  evil,  how  much  easier  it  is  for  a  lying 
tongue  to  stain  a  reputation  than  for  a  friend  to  clear 
it.  But  among  his  friends  he  spoke  his  mind  freely. 
He  thought  the  Scotists,  who  are  considered  so  clever, 
were  stupid  blockheads.  He  regarded  their  word- 
splitting,  their  catching  at  objections,  their  minute 
sub-dividings,  as  signs  of  a  starved  intellect.  He 
hated  Thomas  Aquinas  even  more  than  Scotus.  I 
once  praised  the  "  Catena  Aurea  "  to  him.  He  was 
silent.  I  repeated  my  words.  He  glanced  at  me  to 
see  if  I  was  serious,  and  when  he  saw  that  I  meant  it 
he  became  really  angry.  Aquinas  (he  said)  would 
not  have  laid  down  the  law  so  boldly  on  all  things  in 
heaven  and  earth  if  he  had  not  been  an  arrogant  fool, 
and  he  would  not  have  contaminated  Christianity  with 
his  preposterous  philosophy  if  he  had  not  been  a 
worldling  at  heart. 

He  had  a  bad  opinion  of  the  monasteries  falsely  so 
called.  He  gave  them  little  and  left  them  nothing. 
He  said  that  morality  was  always  purer  among  mar- 


100  lAfe  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

ried  laymen,  and  yet,  though  himself  absolutely  chaste, 
he  was  not  very  hard  on  priests  and  monks  who  only 
sinned  with  women.  He  did  not  make  light  of  im- 
purity, but  he  thought  it  less  criminal  than  spite  and 
malice,  and  envy  and  vanity  and  ignorance.  The 
loose  sort  were  at  least  made  human  and  modest  by 
their  very  faults,  and  he  regarded  avarice  and  arro- 
gance as  blacker  sins  in  a  priest  than  a  hundred  con- 
cubines. 

He  had  a  particular  dislike  of  bishops.  He  said 
they  were  more  like  wolves  than  shepherds.  They 
sold  the  sacraments,  sold  their  ceremonies  and  absolu- 
tions. They  were  slaves  of  vanity  and  avarice.  He 
did  not  much  blame  those  who  doubted  whether  a 
wicked  priest  could  convey  sacramental  grace,  and 
was  indignant  that  there  were  so  many  of  them  as  to 
force  the  question  to  be  raised. 

He  disapproved  of  the  great  educational  institutions 
in  England.  He  thought  they  encouraged  idleness. 
As  little  did  he  like  the  public  schools.  Education 
was  spoilt,  he  said,  when  the  lessons  learnt  were 
turned  to  worldly  account  and  made  the  means  of  get- 
ting on.  He  was  himself  learned,  but  he  had  no  re- 
spect for  a  mass  of  information  gathered  out  of  a 
multitude  of  books.  Such  laborious  wisdom  he  said 
was  fatal  to  sound  knowledge  and  right  feeling.  He 
approved  of  a  fine  ritual  at  church,  but  he  saw  no 
reason  why  priests  should  be  always  muttering  pray- 
ers at  home  or  on  their  walks.  He  admitted  pri- 
vately that  many  things  were  generally  taught  which 
he  did  not  believe,  but  he  would  not  create  scandal 
by  blurting  out  his  objections.  No  book  could  be  so 
heretical  but  he  would  read  it,  and  read  it  carefully. 
He  learnt  more  from  such  books  than  he  learnt  from 
dogmatism  and  interested  orthodoxy. 

Such  was  the  famous  Colet,  seen  in  undress  among 
his  friends.  A  dean  who  hated  bishops  was  not  likely 
to  be  on  good  terms  with  his  own ;  and  Erasmus  adds 
a  story  which  introduces  suddenly  the  Court,  and  the 


Lecture   VI.  101 

Court  intrigues  ;  shows  us  what  Colet  thought  of  the 
war  with  France  which  I  spoke  of  just  now,  and  how 
Fitzjames,  the  old  Bishop  of  London,  tried  to  bring 
him  into  disgrace  with  Henry. 

I  will  say  no  harm  of  the  Bishop  of  London  (says 
Erasmus),  except  that  he  was  a  superstitious  and 
malignant  Scotist.  I  have  known  other  bishops  like 
him.  I  must  not  call  them  wicked,  but  I  would  not 
call  them  Christians  either.  Colet's  discipline  was 
not  popular  with  the  Chapter  of  Eastminster.1  They 
complained  to  the  old  Bishop,  who  was  past  eighty. 
The  Bishop  consulted  two  other  bishops,  and  they 
resolved  to  crush  this  troublesome  Dean.  Besides 
cutting  short  the  Chapter's  suppers,  he  had  said  in  a 
sermon  that  it  was  wrong  to  worship  images.  He  had 
denied  that  the  injunction  in  the  Gospel  to  feed  the 
sheep  was  addressed  specially  to  Peter.  Finally,  he 
had  objected  to  the  English  practice  of  reading  ser- 
mons, thereby  reflecting  on  his  own  Diocesan,  who 
always  read  his. 

They  laid  their  complaint  before  the  Primate,  who 
took  Colet's  side ;  so  they  next  applied  to  the  King. 
War  with  France  was  impending,  and  the  King  was 
busy  with  his  preparations.  The  Bishop  and  a  couple 
of  friars  came  to  him  with  a  story  that  Colet  had  been 
preaching  against  it.  The  King  knew  Colet  and 
valued  him.  Colet's  real  offence,  he  well  understood, 
was  his  constant  exposure  of  the  corruptions  and  dis- 
orders of  the  Church.  He  sent  for  Colet,  took  no 
notice  of  the  Peace  Sermon,  but  bade  him  care  no- 
thing for  the  Bishop's  malice,  and  go  on  with  his 
work.  lie  would  bring  the  right  reverend  prelates 
to  their  bearings.  Colet  offered  to  resign  his  Dean- 
ery sooner  than  be  an  occasion  of  trouble.  Henry 
would  not  hear  of  it,  and  a  Sunday  or  two  after  the 

1  St.  Paul's  was  called  East  Minster,  corresponding  to  Westminster. 


102  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Dean  preached  before  the  Court,  when  the  campaign 
in  France  was  just  about  to  begin.  He  went  boldly 
at  the  dangerous  subject.  He  preached  on  the  vic- 
tory of  Christ,  spoke  of  fighting  as  a  savage  business, 
intimated  that  it  was  not  charity  to  plunge  a  sword 
into  another  man's  bowels  —  that  it  would  be  better 
to  imitate  Christ  than  to  imitate  popes  like  Alex- 
ander or  Julius. 

The  war  was  undertaken  at  Julius's  instigation. 
The  King  himself,  only  twenty-one,  in  the  enthusiasm 
of  what  was  considered  a  crusade  for  the  Catholic 
faith,  was  himself  disturbed,  afraid  such  a  sermon 
would  cool  his  army's  spirits.  The  bishops  flew  on 
the  preacher  like  so  many  sparrows  on  an  owl.  Colet 
was  again  sent  for  to  Greenwich.  It  was  supposed 
that  his  hour  was  come.  The  King  received  him 
in  the  garden,  and  dismissing  his  attendants,  said 
quietly  :  "  Mr.  Dean,  I  do  not  mean  to  interfere  with 
your  good  work.  I  approve  heartily  of  all  that  you 
are  doing,  but  you  have  raised  scruples  in  me  and  I 
must  talk  with  you." 

The  conversation  lasted  an  hour  and  a  half.  The 
Bishop  of  London  was  puffing  about  the  Court,  think- 
ing his  enemy  was  done  for.  The  King  only  wanted 
to  know  whether  in  Colet's  opinion  no  war  could  be 
justifiable.  Colet  did  not  say  as  much  as  this,  and 
the  King  was  satisfied.  They  returned  together  to 
the  palace.  Henry  sent  for  a  cup  of  wine,  pledged 
him  and  embraced  him.  The  courtiers  crowded  round 
to  hear  the  issue.  The  King  said,  "Let  every  man 
choose  his  own  Doctor.  Dean  Colet  shall  be  mine." 
The  wolves  gaped,  especially  the  Bishop,  and  from 
this  time  no  one  attacked  Colet  any  more. 

The  sermon  on  the  victory  of  Christ  did  not  pre- 
vent the  war.     The  nation  was   enthusiastic  for  it. 


Lecture   VI.  103 

The  English  armies  were  brilliantly  successful. 
Flodden  Field  was  a  single  incident  in  the  campaign, 
and  all  causes  seem  just  when  they  are  triumphant. 
But  these  things  do  not  concern  us  here,  and  I  have 
touched  the  subject  only  for  the  sake  of  Colet. 

Now  for  the  companion  picture  of  Sir  Thomas 
More,  which  is  given  in  a  letter  from  Erasmus  to 
Ulrich  von  Hutten.1  You  may  have  heard  of  Von 
Hutten  —  he  who  threatened  to  carry  Luther  off  by 
force  from  Worms  if  the  safe-conduct  was  not  to  be 
observed,  and  to  make  the  Pope's  Legate  smart  for  it. 
Von  Hutten,  or  a  group  of  anonymous  friends  of  his, 
were  just  producing  the  "  Epistolae  obscurorum  Viro- 
rum  "  as  a  caricature  on  the  monks,  which  set  all  Eu- 
rope laughing.  The  satire  was  as  gross  as  Rabelais', 
but  extremely  witty,  so  witty  that  the  world  insisted 
that  Erasmus  must  have  written  it,  and  when  it  was 
found  not  to  be  his,  reported  that  he  was  convulsed 
with  laughter  over  the  inimitable  humour.  Erasmus 
said  himself  that,  though  he  was  not  particular,  the 
coarseness  disgusted  him,  and  he  disowned  not  only 
all  share  in  the  work,  but  all  interest  in  it.  It  had 
not  that  effect  on  his  friend  at  Chelsea.  Sir  T.  More, 
ardent  Catholic  as  he  was,  loathed  the  monks  as  a 
disgrace  to  the  Church,  and  frankly  confessed  him- 
self delighted  with  this  remarkable  production.  Von 
Hutten  was  anxious  to  know  more  of  this  English 
admirer  of  the  "  Epistolse,"  and  wrote  to  Erasmus 
for  an  account  of  More. 

The  task  (Erasmus  says)  is  not  an  easy  one,  for 
not  everyone  understands  More,  who  is  as  difficult  a 
subject  as  Alexander  or  Achilles.  He  is  of  middle 
height,  well  shaped,  complexion  pale,  without  a  touch 
of  colour  in  it  save  when  the  skin  flushes.  The  hair 
1  Ep.  ccecxlvii.,  abridged. 


104  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

is  black,  shot  with  yellow,  or  yellow  shot  with  black ; 
heard  scanty,  eyes  grey,  with  dark  spots  —  ari  eye 
supposed  in  England  to  indicate  genius,  and  to  he 
never  found  except  in  remarkable  men.  The  expres- 
sion is  pleasant  and  cordial,  easily  passing  into  a 
smile,  for  he  has  the  quickest  sense  of  the  ridiculous 
of  any  man  I  ever  met.  The  right  shoulder  is  rather 
higher  than  the  left,  the  result  of  a  trick  in  walking, 
not  from  a  physical  defect.  The  rest  is  in  keeping. 
The  only  sign  of  rusticity  is  in  the  hands,  which  are 
slightly  coarse.  From  childhood  he  has  been  careless 
of  appearance,  but  he  has  still  the  charm  which  I  re- 
member when  I  first  knew  him.  His  health  is  good, 
though  not  robust,  and  he  is  likely  to  be  long-lived. 
His  father,  though  in  extreme  old  age,  is  still  vigor- 
ous. He  is  careless  in  what  he  eats.  I  never  saw  a 
man  more  so.  Like  his  father,  he  is  a  water-drinker. 
His  food  is  beef,  fresh  or  salt,  bread,  milk,  fruit,  and 
especially  eggs.  His  voice  is  low  and  unmusical, 
though  he  loves  music ;  but  it  is  clear  and  penetrat- 
ing. He  articulates  slowly  and  distinctly,  and  never 
hesitates. 

He  dresses  plainly  ;  no  silks,  or  velvets,  or  gold 
chains.  He  has  no  concern  for  ceremony,  expects 
none  from  others,  and  shows  little  himself.  He  holds 
forms  and  courtesies  unworthy  of  a  man  of  sense,  and 
for  that  reason  has  hitherto  kept  clear  of  the  Court. 
All  Courts  are  full  of  intrigue.  There  is  less  of  it  in 
England  than  elsewhere,  for  there  are  no  affectations 
in  the  King;  but  More  loves  freedom,  and  likes  to 
have  his  time  to  himself.  He  is  a  true  friend.  When 
he  finds  a  man  to  be  of  the  wrong  sort,  he  lets  him 
drop,  but  he  enjoys  nothing  so  much  as  the  society  of 
those  who  suit  him  and  whose  character  he  approves. 
Gambling  of  all  kinds,  balls,  dice,  and  such  like,  he 
detests.  None  of  that  sort  are  to  be  found  about  him. 
In  short,  he  is  the  best  type  of  companion. 

His  talk  is  charming,  full  of  fun,  but  never  scurri- 
lous or  malicious.  He  used  to  act  plays  when  young ; 
wit   delights    him,    though   at  his    own    expense  ;  he 


Lecture    VI.  105 

writes  smart  epigrams  ;  he  set  me  on  my  "  Encomium 
Moriae"  (of  which  I  shall  speak  presently).  It  was 
like  setting  a  camel  to  dance,  but  he  can  make  fun  of 
anything.  He  is  wise  with  the  wise,  and  jests  with 
fools  —  with  women  specially,  and  his  wife  among 
them.  He  is  fond  of  animals  of  all  kinds,  and  likes 
to  watch  their  habits.  All  the  birds  in  Chelsea  come 
to  him  to  be  fed.  He  has  a  menagerie  of  tame 
beasts,  a  monkey,  a  fox,  a  ferret,  and  a  weasel.  He 
buys  any  singular  thing  which  is  brought  to  him. 
His  house  is  a  magazine  of  curiosities,  which  he  de- 
lights in  showing  off. 

He  had  his  love  affairs  when  young,  but  none  that 
compromised  him  ;  he  was  entertained  by  the  girls 
running  after  him.  He  studied  hard  also  at  that  time 
at  Greek  and  philosophy.  His  father  wanted  him  to 
work  at  English  law,  but  he  didn't  like  it.  The  law 
in  England  is  the  high  road  to  fame  and  fortune,  and 
many  peerages  have  risen  out  of  that  profession.  But 
they  say  it  requires  years  of  labour.  More  had  no 
taste  that  way,  Nature  having  designed  him  for  better 
things.  Nevertheless,  after  drinking  deep  in  litera- 
ture he  did  make  himself  a  lawyer,  and  an  excellent 
one.  No  opinion  is  sought  more  eagerly  than  his  or 
more  highly  paid  for.  He  worked  at  divinity  besides, 
and  lectured  to  large  audiences  on  Augustine's  "  De 
Civitate  Dei."  Priests  and  old  men  were  not  ashamed 
to  learn  from  him.  His  original  wish  was  to  be  a 
priest  himself.  He  prepared  for  it  with  fast,  and 
prayer,  and  vigil,  unlike  most,  who  rush  into  ordina- 
tion without  preparation  of  any  kind.  He  gave  it  up 
because  he  fell  in  love,  and  he  thought  a  chaste  hus- 
band was  better  than  a  profligate  clerk.  The  wife 
that  he  chose  was  a  very  young  lady,  well  connected 
but  wholly  uneducated,  who  had  been  brought  up  in 
the  country  with  her  parents.  Thus  he  was  able  to 
shape  her  character  after  his  own  pattern.  He  taught 
her  books.  He  taught  her  music,  and  formed  her  into 
a  companion  for  his  life.  Unhappily  she  was  taken 
from  him  by  death  before  her  time.     She  bore  him 


106  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

several  children :  three  daughters,  Margaret,  Cecilia, 
and  Louisa,  who  are  still  with  him,  and  one  son,  John. 
A  few  months  after  he  had  buried  her  he  married  a 
widow  to  take  care  of  them.  This  lady,  he  often  said 
with  a  laugh,  was  neither  young  nor  pretty ;  but  she 
was  a  good  manager,  and  he  lived  as  pleasantly  with 
her  as  if  she  had  been  the  loveliest  of  maidens.  He 
rules  her  with  jokes  and  caresses  better  than  most 
husbands  do  with  sternness  and  authority,  and  though 
she  has  a  sharp  tongue  and  is  a  thrifty  housekeeper, 
he  has  made  her  learn  harp,  cithern,  and  guitar,  and 
practise  before  him  every  day. 

He  controls  his  family  with  the  same  easy  hand: 
no  tragedies,  no  quarrels.     If  a  dispute  begins  it  is 
promptly  settled.     He  has  never  made  an  enemy  nor 
become  an  enemy.     His  whole  house  breathes  happi- 
ness, and  no  one  enters  it  who  is  not  the  better  for  the 
visit.     The  father  also  made  a  second  marriage,  and 
More  was  as  dutiful  to  his  stepmother  as  he  was  to  his 
own  mother.     She  died,  and  the  old  man  took  a  third 
wife,  and  More  swore  he  had  never  known  a  better 
woman.      He   troubles   neither   his    parents   nor   his 
children  with  excess  of  attention,  but  lie  neglects  no 
duty  to  either.     He  is  indifferent  to  money.     He  sets 
apart  so  much  of  his  income  as  will  make  a  future 
provision  for  his  family ;  the  rest  he  spends  or  gives 
away.     It  is  large,  and  arises  from  his  profession  as 
an  advocate,  but  he  always  advises  his  clients  for  the 
best,  and   recommends  them  to  settle  their  disputes 
out  of  Court.     For  a  time  he  was  a  judge  in  civil 
causes.     The  work  was  not  severe,  but  the  position 
was  honourable.     No  judge  finished  off  more  causes 
or  was  more  upright,  and  he  often  remitted  the  fees. 
He  was  exceedingly  liked  in  the  city.     He  was  satis- 
fied, and  had  no  higher  ambition.     Eventually  he  was 
forced  upon  a  foreign  mission,  and  conducted  himself 
so  well  that  the  King  would  not  afterwards  part  with 
him,  and  dragged  him  into  the  circle  of  the  Court. 
"Dragged"  is  the  word,  for  no  one  ever  struggled 
harder  to  gain  admission  there  than  More  struggled 


Lecture  VI.  107 

to  escape.  But  the  King  was  bent  on  surrounding 
himself  with  the  most  capable  men  in  his  dominions. 
He  insisted  that  More  should  make  one  of  them,  and 
now  he  values  him  so  highly,  both  as  a  companion 
and  as  a  Privy  Councillor,  that  he  will  scarcely  let 
him  out  of  his  sight. 

More  has  been  never  known  to  accept  a  present. 
Happy  the  commonwealth  where  the  magistrates  are 
of  such  material !  Elevation  has  not  elated  him  or 
made  him  forget  his  humble  friends,  and  he  returns 
whenever  he  can  to  his  beloved  books.  He  is  always 
kind,  always  generous.  Some  he  helps  with  money, 
some  with  influence.  When  he  can  give  nothing  else 
he  gives  advice.  He  is  Patron-General  to  all  poor 
devils. 

The  history  of  his  connection  with  me  was  this.  In 
his  early  life  he  was  a  versifier,  and  he  came  to  me  to 
improve  his  style.  Since  that  time  he  has  written  a 
good  deal.  He  has  written  a  dialogue  defending 
Plato's  community  of  wives.  He  has  answered  Lu- 
cian's  "  Tyrannicida."  He  wanted  me  to  take  the 
other  side,  that  he  might  the  better  test  his  skill. 
His  "Utopia"  was  written  to  indicate  the  dangers 
which  threatened  the  English  commonwealth.  The 
second  part  was  written  first.  The  other  was  added 
afterwards.  You  can  trace  a  difference  in  the  style. 
He  has  a  fine  intellect  and  an  excellent  memory  ;  in- 
formation all  arranged  and  pigeon-holed  to  be  ready 
for  use.  He  is  so  ready  in  argument  that  he  can 
puzzle  the  best  divines  on  their  own  subjects.  Colet, 
a  good  judge  on  such  points,  says  More  has  more 
genius  than  any  man  in  England.  He  is  religious, 
but  without  superstition.  He  has  his  hours  for  prayer, 
but  he  uses  no  forms,  and  prays  out  of  his  heart.  He 
will  talk  with  his  friends  about  a  life  to  come,  and  you 
can  see  that  he  means  it  and  has  real  hopes.  Such  is 
More,  and  More  is  an  English  courtier,  and  people 
fancy  that  no  Christians  are  to  be  found  outside  mon- 
asteries. The  King  not  only  admits  such  men  into 
his  Court,  but  he  invites  them  —  forces  them  —  that 


108  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

they  may  be  in  a  position  to  watch  all  that  he  does, 
and  share  his  duties  and  his  pleasures.  He  prefers 
the  companionship  of  men  like  More  to  that  of  silly 
youths  or  girls,  or  the  rich,  or  the  dishonest,  who 
might  tempt  him  to  foolish  indulgences  or  injurious 
courses.  If  you  were  here  in  England,  my  dear 
Huttcn,  you  would  leave  off  abusing  Courts.  A  gal- 
axy of  distinguished  men  now  surrounds  the  English 
throne. 

The  subject  of  this  beautiful  picture  had  built 
himself,  as  I  said  before,  a  house  on  the  Thames  at 
Chelsea.  It  was  of  moderate  and  unpretentious 
dimensions,  with  a  garden  leading  down  to  the  river, 
not  far  from  where  Carlyle's  statue  now  stands,  or 
sits.  The  life  there,  as  Erasmus  elsewhere  says,  was 
like  the  life  in  Plato's  Academy,  and  there  Erasmus 
was  a  permanent  guest  whenever  he  was  in  London. 
No  two  men  ever  suited  each  other  better,  their  intel- 
lectual differences  only  serving  to  give  interest  to  their 
conversations,  while  both  had  that  peculiar  humour 
which  means  at  bottom  the  power  of  seeing  things  as 
they  really  are,  undisguised  by  conventional  wrap- 
pings. More's  mind  was  free  and  noble.  Erasmus 
told  Hutten  that  he  was  without  superstition.  Else- 
where, however,  he  allows  that  there  was  a  vein  of  it, 
and  that  vein,  as  the  sky  blackened  with  the  storm  of 
the  Reformation,  swelled  and  turned  him  into  a  perse- 
cutor. Men  who  have  been  themselves  reformers  are 
the  least  tolerant  when  the  movement  takes  forms 
which  they  dislike.  Erasmus's  inclination  was  to 
scepticism.  He  owns  surprise  that  More  was  entirely 
satisfied  with  the  evidence  for  a  future  life.  Both, 
however,  were  united  in  a  conviction  of  the  serious- 
ness of  mortal  existence.  Both  abhorred  the  hypoc- 
risy of  the  monks,  the  simony  and  worldliness  of  the 
Church,  and   knew  that  without   a  root  and    branch 


Lecture   VI  109 

alteration  of  things  a  catastrophe  was  not  far  off. 
Each  went  his  way  —  More  to  reaction  and  Tower  / 
Hill ;  Erasmus  to  aid  in  precipitating  the  convulsion, 
then  to  regret  what  he  had  done,  and  to  have  a  near 
escape  of  ending  as  a  cardinal.  Never,  however,  while 
they  both  lived,  was  their  affection  for  one  another 
clouded  or  weakened. 

Pity  that  we  know  so  little  of  their  talks  together 
on  all  things,  human  and  divine,  as  they  strolled  by 
the  side  of  the  then  Silver  River.  A  Chelsea  tradi- 
tion, perhaps  authentic,  preserves  a  trace  of  what  may 
have  passed  between  them  on  the  great  central  ques- 
tion which  was  about  to  divide  the  Christian  world. 

Erasmus  was  leaving  Chelsea  on  some  riding  ex- 
pedition. More  provided  him  with  a  horse,  which  for 
some  cause  was  not  returned  at  the  time  when  it  was 
looked  for.  Instead  of  the  horse  came  a  letter,  with 
the  following  lines :  — 

Quod  milri  dixisti 

De  corpore  Christi 

Crede  quod  edas  et  edis  ; 

Sic  tibi  rescribo 

De  tuo  paifrido 

Crede  quod  habeas  et  habes. 

The  controversy  on  the  Eucharist  had  not  yet  risen 
into  contradictory  definitions ;  but  doubt  on  the  great 
mystery  was  in  the  air,  and  the  friends  had  argued 
about  it.  More  believed  in  the  Real  Presence  ;  Eras- 
mus believed  in  it  too,  though  with  latent  misgivings. 
But  More,  without  knowing  it,  had  blundered  into  the 
Lutheran  heresy,  and  had  held  that  the  change  in  the 
elements  depended  on  the  faith  of  the  recipient. 


LECTUEE  VII. 

Erasmus  continued  to  linger  in  England  after  he 
had  discovered  that  the  expectations  which  he  had 
formed  from  the  King's  invitation  were  likely  to  be 
disappointed.  He  may  have  thought  that  the  dis- 
appointment was  due  only  to  the  war,  and  that  with 
the  return  of  peace  his  English  prospects  might 
brighten  again.  Julius  II.,  besides,  had  set  the  Con- 
tinent in  a  flame.  Henry's  army  was  on  the  frontier 
of  the  Netherlands,  besieging  towns  in  the  glow  of  a 
successful  campaign,  and  Paris  might  have  been  an 
unpleasant  residence  just  then  to  a  man  who  had 
become  half  an  Englishman  and  was  anxious  to  be- 
come a  whole  one.  He  was  busy,  too,  printing  his 
"  Jerome  "  —  printing  it  at  his  own  expense,  and 
money  was  again  not  plentiful  with  him.  His  New 
Testament  was  approaching  completion,  but  it  kept 
him  hard  at  work,  with  clerks  and  secretaries  whom 
he  had  to  find  in  wages.  His  patron,  Mountjoy,  was 
with  the  King.  The  campaign  was  costly,  and  the 
pension  which  Mountjoy  had  promised  could  not  yet 
be  paid.  Thus  Erasmus  had  remained  on  in  England, 
waiting  for  the  turn  of  events,  and  finally,  wishing  to 
do  something,  he  was  induced  by  Fisher,  Bishop  of 
Rochester,  and  then  Chancellor  of  the  University,  to 
go  back  to  Cambridge  and  lecture  for  a  time  to  classes 
there,  not  with  any  intention  of  a  permanent  resi- 
dence, but  to  employ  his  time,  and  perhaps  avail  him- 
self of  the  college  libraries. 

Of  his  earlier  Cambridge  experiences,  in  1506,  we 


Lecture   VII  Ill 

know  nothing  beyond  the  fact  that  he  was  some 
months  resident  and  teaching  Greek  there.  On  this 
last  occasion  we  have  again  his  own  letters  to  guide 
us,  which  give  us  a  tolerably  distinct  view  of  his 
position.  It  is  almost  a  matter  of  course  that  we 
should  find  him  in  his  old  straits  for  money. 

A  letter  to  Colet,  written  a  few  days  after  his  ar- 
rival, describes  his  journey  and  the  condition  in  which 
he  found  himself.  Cambridge  did  not  seem  to  have 
been  conscious  how  great  a  man  she  was  entertaining.1 

If  you  can  be  amused  at  my  misfortunes,  I  can  make 
you  laugh.  After  my  accident  in  London 2  my  ser- 
vant's horse  fell  lame,  and  I  could  find  no  one  to  attend 
to  it.  Next  day  heavy  rain  till  dinner-time.  In  the 
afternoon  thunder,  lightning,  and  hail.  My  own  horse 
fell  on  his  head,  and  my  companion,  after  consulting 
the  stars,  informed  me  that  Jupiter  was  angry.  On 
the  whole,  I  am  well  satisfied  with  what  I  find  here. 
I  have  a  prospect  of  Christian  poverty.  Far  from 
making  any  money,  I  shall  have  to  spend  all  that  I 
can  get  from  my  Maecenas.3  We  have  a  doctor  at  the 
University  who  has  invented  a  Prophylactic  of  the 
Fifth  Essence,  with  which  he  promises  to  make  old 
men  young,  and  bring  dead  men  back  to  life,  so  that  I 
may  hope  if  I  swallow  some  of  it  to  recover  my  own 
youth.  If  this  prove  true,  I  came  to  Cambridge  on  a 
happy  day.  But  I  see  no  chance  of  fees.  .  Nothing 
can  be  extracted  from  the  naked.  I  am  not  myself  a 
bad  fellow,  but  I  was  surely  born  under  an  evil  star. 
Adieu,  my  dear  Protector.  When  I  have  started  my 
professional  work,  I  will  let  you  know  how  I  go  on, 
and  give  you  more  amusement.  Perhaps  I  may  even — 
so  audacious  I  grow  —  attack  your  Lectures  on  St. 
Paul. 

War  was  now  raging  by  sea  and  land.     The  Empire, 

1  Ep.   cxvii. 

2  I  don't  know  what  that  wag, 
8  Archbishop  Warhain. 


112  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Spain  and  England  combined  with  the  Pope  against 
Louis  XII.,  Scotland  declaring  for  Louis  and  threat- 
ening the  English  Border.  Ammonias,  an  Italian 
agent  of  the  Pope  in  London,  was  to  accompany  the 
English  army  abroad  and  attend  the  campaign.  He 
was  a  friend  of  Erasmus,  and  had  lent  him  money. 
To  him  also  Erasmus  wrote  on  reaching  Cambridge  •} — 

I  have  no  news  for  you  except  that  my  journey  was 
detestable,  and  that  this  place  does  not  agree  with  me. 
I  have  pleaded  sickness  so  far  as  an  excuse  for  postpon- 
ing my  lectures.  Beer  does  not  suit  me  either,  and 
the  wine  is  horrible.  If  you  can  send  me  a  barrel  of 
Greek  wine,  the  best  which  can  be  had,  Erasmus  will 
bless  you  ;  only  take  care  it  is  not  sweet.  Have  no 
uneasiness  about  your  loan ;  it  will  be  paid  before  the 
date  of  the  bill.  Meanwhile  I  am  being  killecl  with 
thirst.     Imagine  the  rest.     Farewell. 


vOJ 


It  is  epiite  clear  that  Erasmus  did  not  mean  to  re- 
main long  at  Cambridge.  Ammonias  goes  to  France, 
sees  the  fighting,  and  sends  Erasmus  a  flourishing 
account  of  it.     Erasmas  answers  : 2  — 

The  plague  is  in  London,  so  I  remain  where  I  am, 
but  I  shall  get  away  on  the  first  opportunity.  The 
thirty  nobles  which  are  due  to  me  at  Michaelmas  have 
not  yet  arrived.  My  "Jerome"  engages  all  my 
thoughts.  I  am  printing  it  at  my  own  cost,  and  the 
expense  is  heavy.  You  give  a  splendid  picture  of  your 
doings  in  the  campaign.  The  snorting  of  the  horses, 
the  galloping,  the  shouts  of  the  men,  the  blare  of  the 
trumpets,  the  gasping  of  the  sick,  and  the  groans,  of 
the  dying.  I  have  it  all  before  me.  You  will  have 
something  to  talk  of  for  the  rest  of  your  life.  But  re- 
member my  advice  to  you.     Fight  yourself  where  the 

1  Ep.  exviii.  —  The  dates  assigned  to  the  letters  from  Cambridge  to 
Ammonius  are  hopeless.  They  are  represented  as  written  in  1510  and 
1511.     There  are  continual  references  in  them  to  the  war  of  1513. 

2  Ep.  cxix. 


Lecture   VII.  113 

danger  is  least.  Keep  your  valour  for  your  pen.  Re- 
member me  to  the  Abbot  of  St.  Bertin  when  you  are 
at  St.  Omer. 

The  Cambridge  letters  generally  are  in  the  same 
tone.  They  show  little  interest  in  the  University,  or 
in  Erasmus's  occupations  there,  or  in  the  eminent  per- 
sons whom  he  must  have  met.  We  have  no  intellect- 
ual symposia  such  as  had  delighted  him  in  Oxford,  no 
more  Colets  or  Grocyns,  though  one  can  fancy  that  he 
must  at  least  have  encountered  Cranmer  there,  and 
possibly  Latimer.  He  writes  chiefly  about  his  discom- 
forts and  on  his  chances  of  getting  away  for  a  week  or 
two  to  visit  Colet  or  More.  The  Greek  wine  was  duly 
sent  and  paid  for  with  a  set  of  ardently  grateful  verses. 
The  cask  was  soon  emptied,  and  the  thirsty  soul  had, 
he  said,  but  the  scent  of  it  left  to  console  him.  Mount- 
joy  had  promised  him  the  use  of  his  house  in  London. 
He  rode  up  and  presented  himself,  but  Mountjoy  was 
at  the  war,  and  his  "  Cerberus,"  as  Erasmus  called  the 
porter,  refused  to  admit  him  in  his  master's  absence. 
He  went  back  to  the  University.  There  were  highway- 
men on  the  road,  and  though  he  escaped  plunder,  he 
did  not  escape  a  fright.  A  fresh  supply  of  Greek 
wine  was  provided.  The  carriers  found  out  its  qual- 
ity, drank  half  of  it,  and  filled  up  the  barrel  with  wa- 
ter. His  only  happiness  was  in  his  work.  He  lived, 
he  said,  as  a  cockle  in  his  shell.  Cambridge  was  a 
solitude.  The  plague  had  spread  there,  and  the  stu- 
dents had  mostly  gone  down.  Even  if  they  had  been 
in  residence,  he  would  have  seen  but  little  of  them,  for 
his  lecture-room  was  thinly  attended.  The  cost  of  liv- 
ing was  intolerable.  In  the  first  five  months  of  his  stay 
he  had  spent  sixty  nobles  and  had  received  but  one. 
When  January  came,  and  the  cold  weather  with  it,  he 
had  an  attack  of  stone,  brought  on  by  the  beer  and  the 


114  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

water  in  the  wine,  and  he  poured  ont  his  lamentations 
to  Warham  with  more  eloquence  than  the  Archbishop 
thought  the  occasion  called  for. 

The  stone  was  the  favourite  subject  for  English  wit. 
Warham  trusted  that,  as  it  was  the  Feast  of  the  Puri- 
fication, the  enemy  would  soon  be  cleared  out. 

What  business  have  you  (was  the  Archbishop's 
light  reply  J)  with  such  a  superfluous  load  as  stones  in 
your  small  body,  or  what  do  you  propose  to  build  su- 
per hanc  petram  ?  Stones  are  heavy  carriage,  as  I 
know  to  my  cost  when  I  want  them  for  building  pur- 
poses. I  presume  you  do  not  contemplate  building  a 
palace,  so  have  them  carted  away,  and  I  send  you  ten 
angels  to  help  you  to  rid  yourself  of  the  burden.  Gold 
is  a  good  medicine.  Use  it  freely,  and  recover  your 
health.  I  would  give  you  a  great  deal  more  to  set  you 
up  again.  You  have  work  to  do  and  more  books  to 
edit,  so  get  well  and  do  it,  and  do  not  cheat  us  of  our 
hopes. 

No  wonder  Erasmus  loved  Warham.  He  was  proud 
besides  to  have  so  great  a  man  for  his  patron,  and  he 
made  the  most  of  it  to  impress  his  friends  in  the  Neth- 
erlands that  he  was  living  with  creditable  people  in 
England.  He  tells  the  Abbot  of  St.  Bertin  that  he 
has  become  half  an  Englishman,  that  the  first  men  in 
the  country  had  taken  him  under  their  protection,  that 
he  had  found  a  Maecenas  in  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, a  Maecenas,  too,  with  fine  qualities  of  his  own  — 
learned,  witty,  gracious  —  so  gracious  that  no  one  ever 
left  his  presence  with  a  heavy  heart,  so  little  proud 
that  he  was  himself  the  only  person  unconscious  of  his 
merits.2 

But  if  Warham's  ten  angels  had  been  ten  legions  of 
angels,  as  the  Archbishop  said   he  wished  they  had 

1  Ep.    cxxxiv. 

2  Ep.  exxxv. 


Lecture   VII  115 

been,  they  would  not  have  comforted  the  sensitive 
Erasmus  for  his  captivity  among  the  fogs  and  dons  of 
Cambridge.  He  pined  for  Italy  and  Italian  wine  and 
sunshine,  and  cursed  his  folly  for  having  left  Rome. 

Never  can  I  forget  your  goodness  to  me  (he  writes 
to  a  member  of  the  Sacred  College  2).  Would  that  I 
could  find  some  water  of  Lethe  to  wash  Rome  out  of 
my  memory.  The  remembrance  of  it  tortures  me. 
That  sky,  those  parks,  those  walks  and  libraries,  that 
charming  companionship  with  men  who  are  the  lights 
of  the  world,  that  wealth  in  possession,  and  those  hopes 
which  gleamed  before  me.  Alas !  why  did  I  leave 
them  ?  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  is  my  only 
comfort.  He  is  father  and  mother  to  me,  and  he  is  a 
good  friend  to  Rome  besides,  as  all  the  realm  is.  Pray 
God  it  so  continue. 

The  Cambridge  purgatory  lasted  for  many  months, 
and  the  pains  of  it  did  not  abate.  His  impatience  bub- 
bled over  in  restlessness.  Ammonius  is  advanced  to 
some  high  dignity.  Erasmus  writes  to  congratulate 
him,  and  to  relate  his  own  condition.2 

I  was  badly  confined  on  the  Conception  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  and  brought  forth  stones  ;  consider  them  among 
the  pebbles  of  my  felicity.  You  ask  me  how  you  are 
to  conduct  yourself  in  your  new  elevation.  I  will  tell 
you.  "  Sus  Minervam  "  — the  pig  will  teach  Pallas  and 
will  drop  philosophy.  Make  your  forehead  of  brass, 
and  be  ashamed  of  nothing.  Thrust  rivals  out  of  the 
way  with  your  elbow.  Love  no  one.  Hate  no  one. 
Think  first  and  always  of  your  own  advantage.  Give 
nothing  save  when  you  know  that  you  will  receive  it 
back  with  interest,  and  agree  in  words  to  everything 
which  is  said  to  you.  To  all  this  you  will  of  course 
have  an  answer.  Well,  then,  to  be  more  particular. 
The  P^nglish  are  a  jealous  race,  as  I  need  not  tell  you. 
Take  advantage  of  this  infirmity  of  theirs.     Sit  on  two 

1  Cardinali  Nanetensi,  Ep.  cxxxvi. 

2  Ep.  cxlii. 


116  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

chairs.  Bribe  suitors  to  pay  court  to  you.  Tell  your 
employers  that  you  must  leave  them.  Show  them  let- 
ters intimating-  that  you  are  invited  elsewhere  and  are 
promised  some  distinguished  post.  Draw  back  out  of 
society,  that  yon  may  be  missed  and  asked  after. 

An  evident  bitterness  runs  through  these  Cambridge 
letters.  He  regretted  Rome.  The  Lady  of  Vere  and 
her  son  had  made  some  fresh  proposals  to  him.  He 
was  sorry  that  he  had  rejected  them,  and  hoped  that  it 
was  not  too  late.  He  had  been  led,  he  said,  to  form 
extravagant  expectations  in  England.  He  had  looked 
for  mountains  of  gold,  and  it  had  been  all  illusion.  He 
was  now  poor  as  Ulysses,  and,  like  Ulysses,  he  said  he 
was  lonsriner  for  a  sio-ht  of  the  smoke  from  his  own 
chimney.1  The  Lord  of  Vere  might  provide  for  him. 
He  even  thought  that  his  own  sovereign,  the  Emperor 
Maximilian,  might  provide  for  him.  At  any  rate,  he 
considered  himself  ill  off  where  he  was. 

Not  (he  writes  to  the  Abbot  of  St.  Bertin  2)  that  I 
dislike  England,  or  complain  of  my  English  patrons. 
I  have  many  friends  here  among  the  bishops  and  lead- 
ing men.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  is  a  father 
to  me.  He  gave  me  a  benefice.  I  resigned  it,  and  he 
gave  me  a  pension  in  exchange,  with  further  additions 
from  himself.  Other  great  people  have  been  good  to 
me  too,  and  I  might  have  more  if  I  chose  to  ask  for  it. 
But  this  war  has  turned  the  nation's  head.  All  articles 
have  gone  up  in  price,  and  the  bad  wine  gives  me  the 
stone.  At  best,  too,  an  island  is  a  place  of  banish- 
ment, and  the  war  isolates  us  still  worse.  Letters  can 
hardly  pass  in  or  out.  I  often  wonder  how  human 
beings,  especially  Christian  human  beings,  can  be  so 
mad  as  to  go  fighting  with  one  another.  Beasts  do  not 
fight,  or  only  the  most  savage  kinds  of  them,  and  they 
only  fight  for  food  with  the  weapons  which  Nature  has 
given  them.     Men  fight  for  ambition,  for  anger,  for 

1  Ep.  cxliii. 

2  Ep.  cxliv.,  abridged. 


Lecture    VII  117 

lust,  or  other  folty,  and  the  justest  war  can  hardly  ap- 
prove itself  to  any  reasonable  person.  Who  make  up 
armies?  Cutthroats,  adulterers,  gamblers,  ravishers, 
mercenaries.  And  we  are  to  receive  this  scum  of 
mankind  into  our  towns  !  We  are  to  make  ourselves 
their  slaves  while  they  commit  horrid  crimes,  and  those 
suffer  most  who  have  had  least  concern  in  the  quar- 
rel. The  people  build  cities,  the  princes  destroy 
them,  and  even  victory  brings  more  ill  than  good. 
We  must  not  lightly  blame  our  princes  ;  but  is  the 
world  to  be  convulsed  because  the  rulers  fall  out  ?  I 
would  give  all  that  I  possess  in  England  to  see  Chris- 
tendom at  peace.  You  have  influence  with  the  Arch- 
duke and  the  Emperor  Maximilian  and  the  politicians. 
I  wish  you  would  exert  it. 

The  war  was  to  cease  in  due  time.  Pope  Julius  had 
brought  it  on :  with  Julius's  death  in  1513  it  ended. 
Leo  X.  succeeded,  and  brought  peace  with  him.  Henry 
married  his  sister  Mary  to  King  Louis,  and  all  quar- 
rels were  made  up.  Meanwhile  Erasmus  lingered  on, 
in  financial  difficulties  as  usual,  and  Colet,  who  did  not 
quite  approve  of  the  carelessness  which  caused  them, 
offered  to  relieve  him,  on  condition  that  he  would  beg 
for  help  in  a  humble  manner.  The  satire  was  not  un- 
deserved, and  it  stung.1 

In  your  offer  of  money  (Erasmus  answers)  I  recog- 
nise the  old  Colet ;  but  there  is  one  phrase  in  your 
letter  which  hurts  me,  though  you  use  it  but  in  jest. 
You  say  you  will  give  si  humiliter  mendicavero.  You 
think  me  proud,  perhaps,  and  would  put  me  to  shame. 
"  Si  humiliter  mendicavero  et  si  inverecimde  petain," 
How  can  humility  go  with  impudence  ?  A  friend  is 
not  a  friend  who  waits  for  the  word  Rogo.  What,  I 
beseech  you,  can  be  more  undignified  or  more  con- 
temptible than  the  position  in  which  I  am  placed  in 
England  of  being  a  public  beggar  ?  I  have  received  so 
much  from  the  Archbishop  that  it  would  be  wicked  in 

1  Ep.  el.,  abridged. 


118  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

me  to  take  further  advantage  of  him.    I  begged  boldly 

enough  of  N ,  and  I  received  a  point-blank  refusal. 

Even  Linacre,  though  he  knew  that  I  had  but  six 
angels  left,  that  I  was  in  bad  health,  and  with  winter 
coming  on,  admonished  me  to  spare  Mountjoy  and  the 
Archbishop,  to  reduce  my  expenses,  and  put  up  with 
being  poor.  Truly  admirable  advice.  I  concealed  my 
condition  as  long  as  I  could.  I  cannot  conceal  it 
longer,  unless  I  am  to  be  left  to  die.  But,  indeed,  I  am 
not  so  lost  to  shame  as  to  beg,  least  of  all  to  beg  from 
you,  who  I  know  are  ill-provided  just  now.  I  have  no 
right  to  ask  you  for  anything;  but  if  you  choose  to 
have  it  so,  I  will  accept  what  you  may  please  to  give. 

The  postscript  of  this  letter  contains  the  only  glimpses 
which  we  have  of  Erasmus's  intercourse  with  the  Cam- 
bridge dignitaries.     It  is  curious  and  characteristic. 

Here  (he  adds)  is  something  to  amuse  you.  I  was 
talking  to  some  of  the  masters  about  the  junior  teach- 
ers. One  of  them,  a  great  man  in  his  way,  exclaimed, 
"  Who  would  spend  his  life  in  instructing  boys  if  he 
could  earn  a  living  in  any  other  way  ?  "  I  said  that 
instructing  the  young  was  an  honest  occupation.  Christ 
had  not  despised  children,  and  no  labour  was  so  sure  of 
return.  A  man  of  piety  woidd  feel  that  he  could  not 
employ  his  time  better  than  in  bringing  little  ones  to 
Christ.  My  gentleman  turned  up  his  nose,  and  said 
that  if  we  were  to  give  ourselves  to  Christ  we  had  bet- 
ter join  a  regular  order  and  go  into  a  monastery.  "  St. 
Paid,"  I  replied,  "  considers  that  religion  means  works 
of  charity,  and  charity  means  helping  others."  He 
would  not  have  this  at  all.  Religion  meant  the  nos 
reliquimus  omnia.  That  was  the  only  counsel  of  per- 
f ection.  I  told  him  that  a  man  had  not  left  everything 
who  refused  to  undertake  a  useful  calling  because  he 
thought  it  beneath  him.  And  so  our  conversation 
ended.     Such  is  the  wisdom  of  the  Scotists. 

With  this,  too,  may  end  the  squalid  period  of  Eras- 
mus's life,  for  squalid  it  had  been,  notwithstanding  the 


Lecture   VII.  119 

fame  which  he  had  won,  and  the  occasional  gleams  of 
sunshine  which  had  floated  over  it.  Hitherto  the  world 
had  known  him  chiefly  through  the  "  Adagia,"  a  few 
poems,  and  light,  graceful  treatises  like  "  The  Knight's 
Manual,"  and  had  recognised  in  him  a  brilliant  va- 
grant and  probably  dangerous  man  of  letters.  The 
vagrant's  gown  had  a  silver  lining.  Through  all  these 
struggling  years  he  had  been  patiently  labouring  at 
his  New  Testament,  and  he  was  now  to  blaze  before 
Europe  as  a  new  star.  I  must  say  a  few  words  on 
what  the  appearance  of  that  book  meant. 

The  Christian  religion  as  taught  and  practised  in 
Western  Europe  consisted  of  the  Mass  and  the  Con- 
fessional, of  elaborate  ceremonials,  rituals,  proces- 
sions, pilgrimages,  prayers  to  the  Virgin  and  the 
saints,  with  dispensations  and  indulgences  for  laws 
broken  or  duties  left  undone.  Of  the  Gospels  and 
Epistles  so  much  only  was  known  to  the  laity  as  was 
read  in  the  Church  services,  and  that  intoned  as  if  to 
be  purposely  unintelligible  to  the  understanding.  Of 
the  rest  of  the  Bible  nothing  was  known  at  all,  be- 
cause nothing  was  supposed  to  be  necessary,  and  lec- 
tures like  Colet's  at  Oxford  were  considered  super- 
fluous and  dangerous.  Copies  of  the  Scripture  were 
rare,  shut  up  in  convent  libraries,  and  studied  only  by 
professional  theologians ;  while  conventional  interpre- 
tations were  attached  to  the  text  which  corrupted  or 
distorted  its  meaning.  Erasmus  had  undertaken  to 
give  the  book  to  the  whole  world  to  read  for  itself  — 
the  original  Greek  of  the  Epistles  and  Gospels,  with 
a  new  Latin  translation  —  to  wake  up  the  intelligence, 
to  show  that  the  words  had  a  real  sense,  and  were  not 
mere  sounds  like  the  dronings  of  a  barrel-organ. 

It  was  finished  at  last,  text  and  translation  printed, 
and  the  living  facts  of    Christianity,  the  persons  of 


120  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Christ  and  the  Apostles,  their  history,  their  lives,  their 
teaching  were  revealed  to  an  astonished  world.  For 
the  first  time  the  laity  were  able  to  see,  side  by  side, 
the  Christianity  which  converted  the  world,  and  the 
Christianity  of  the  Church  with  a  Borgia  pope,  card- 
inal princes,  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  a  mythology  of 
lies.     The  effect  was  to  be  a  spiritual  earthquake. 

Erasmus  had  not  been  left  to  work  without  encour- 
agement. He  had  found  friends,  even  at  Rome  itself, 
among  the  members  of  the  Sacred  College,  who  were 
weary  of  imposture  and  had  half  held  out  their  hands 
to  him.  The  Cardinal  de  Medici,  who  had  succeeded 
Julius  as  Leo  X.,  and  aspired  to  shine  as  the  patron 
of  enlightenment,  had  approved  Erasmus's  under- 
taking, and  was  ready  to  give  it  his  public  sanction. 
Nor  had  Erasmus  either  flattered  pojjes  or  flattered 
anyone  to  gain  their  good  word.  He  might  flatter 
when  he  wanted  money  out  of  a  bishop  or  a  fine  lady : 
he  was  never  false  to  intellectual  truth.  To  his  edi- 
tion of  the  New  Testament  he  had  attached  remarks 
appropriate  to  the  time,  and  sent  them  floating  with 
it  through  the  world,  which  must  have  made  the  hair 
of  orthodox  divines  stand  on  end, 

"  Like  quills  upon  the  fretful  porcupine." 

Each  gospel,  each  epistle  had  its  preface ;  while  notes 
were  attached  to  special  passages  to  point  their  force 
upon  the  established  usages.  These  notes  increased 
in  point  and  number  as  edition  followed  edition,  and 
were  accompanied  with  paraphrases  to  bring  out  the 
meanings  with  livelier  intensity.  A  single  candle 
shone  far  in  the  universal  darkness.  That  a  pope 
should  have  been  found  to  allow  the  lia-htinp;  of  it  is 
the  most  startling  feature  in  Reformation  history. 

I  shall  read  you  some  of  these  notes,  and  ask  you  to 
attend  to  them.     Erasmus  opens  with  a  complaint  of 


Lecture   VII  121 

the  neglect  of  Scripture,  of  a  priesthood  who  thought 
more  of  offertory  plates  than  of  parchments,  and  more 
of  gold  than  of  books  ;  of  the  degradation  of  spiritual 
life,  and  of  the  vain  observances  and  scandalous  prac- 
tices of  the  orders  specially  called  religious.  From 
his  criticisms  on  particular  passages  I  will  take  spe- 
cimens here  and  there,  to  show  you  how  he  directed  the 
language  of  evangelists  and  apostles  on  the  abuses  of 
his  own  age. 

Matthew  xix.  12  — "  Eunuchs,  which  have  made 
themselves  eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's  sake." 
This  text  was  a  special  favourite  with  the  religious 
orders.     Erasmus  observes  :  — 

Men  are  threatened  or  tempted  into  vows  of  celi- 
bacy. They  can  have  license  to  go  with  harlots,  but 
they  must  not  marry  wives.  They  may  keep  concu- 
bines and  remain  priests.  If  they  take  wives  they  are 
thrown  to  the  flames.  Parents  who  design  their  chil- 
dren for  a  celibate  priesthood  should  emasculate  them 
in  their  infancy,  instead  of  forcing  them,  reluctant  or 
ignorant,  into  a  furnace  of  licentiousness. 

Matthew  xxiii.,  on  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  :  — 

You  may  find  a  bishop  here  and  there  who  teaches 
the  Gospel,  though  life  and  teaching  have  small  agree- 
ment. But  what  shall  we  say  of  those  who  destroy 
the  Gospel  itself,  make  laws  at  their  will,  tyrannise 
over  the  laity,  and  measure  right  and  wrong  with  rides 
constructed  by  themselves?  Of  those  who  entangle 
their  flocks  in  the  meshes  of  crafty  canons,  who  sit 
not  in  the  seat  of  the  Gospel,  but  in  the  seat  of  Caia- 
phas  and  Simon  Magus — prelates  of  evil,  who  bring 
disgrace  and  discredit  on  their  worthier  brethren  ? 

Again,  in  the  same  chapter,  verse  27,  on  whited 
sepulchres :  — 

What  would  Jerome  say  could  he  see  the  Virgin's 
milk  exhibited  for  money,  with  as  much  honour  paid 


122  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

to  it  as  to  the  consecrated  body  of  Christ ;  the  mirac- 
ulous oil ;  the  portions  of  the  true  cross,  enough  if 
they  were  collected  to  freight  a  large  ship  ?  Here  we 
have  the  hood  of  St.  Francis,  there  Our  Lady's  petti- 
coat or  St.  Anne's  comb,  or  St.  Thomas  of  Canter- 
bury's shoes ;  not  presented  as  innocent  aids  to  reli- 
gion, but  as  the  substance  of  religion  itself  ■ —  and  all 
through  the  avarice  of  priests  and  the  hypocrisy  of 
monks  playing  on  the  credulity  of  the  people.  Even 
bishops  play  their  parts  in  these  fantastic  shows,  and 
approve  and  dwell  on  them  in  their  rescripts. 

Again,  Matthew  xxiv.  23,  on  "  Lo,  here  is  Christ, 
or  there":  — 

I  (Erasmus  says)  saw  with  my  own  eyes  Pope 
Julius  II.  at  Bologna,  and  afterwards  at  Rome, 
marching  at  the  head  of  a  triumphal  procession  as  if 
he  were  Pompey  or  Caesar.  St.  Peter  subdued  the 
world  with  faith,  not  with  arms  or  soldiers  or  military 
engines.  St.  Peter's  successors  would  win  as  many 
victories  as  St.  Peter  won  if  they  had  Peter's  spirit. 

Ignatius  Loyola  once  looked  into  Erasmus's  New 
Testament,  read  a  little,  and  could  not  go  on.  He 
said  it  checked  his  devotional  emotions.  Very  likely 
it  did. 

Again,  Corinthians  xiv.  19,  on  unknown  tongues  :  — 

St.  Paul  says  he  would  rather  speak  five  words  with 
a  reasonable  meaning  in  them  than  ten  thousand  in  an 
unknown  tongue.  They  chant  nowadays  in  our 
churches  in  what  is  an  unknown  tongue  and  nothing- 
else,  while  you  will  not  hear  a  sermon  once  in  six 
months  telling  people  to  amend  their  lives.1  Modern 
church  music  is  so  constructed  that  the  congregation 
cannot  hear  one  distinct  word.  The  choristers  them- 
selves do  not  understand  what  they  are  singing,  yet 
according  to  priests  and  monks  it  constitutes  the  whole 

1  Was  Erasmus  writing  prophetically  of  our  own  Auglo-Catholic  re- 
vivalists ? 


Lecture   VII.  123 

of  religion.  Why  will  they  not  listen  to  St.  Paul? 
In  college  or  monastery  it  is  still  the  same :  music, 
nothing;  but  music.  There  was  no  music  in  St.  Paul's 
time.  Words  were  then  pronounced  plainly.  Words 
nowadays  mean  nothing.  They  are  mere  sounds 
striking  upon  the  ear,  and  men  are  to  leave  their  work 
and  go  to  church  to  listen  to  worse  noises  than  were 
ever  heard  in  Greek  or  Roman  theatre.  Money  must 
be  raised  to  buy  organs  and  train  boys  to  squeal,  and 
to  learn  no  other  thing  that  is  good  for  them.  The 
laity  are  burdened  to  support  miserable,  poisonous 
corybantes,  when  poor,  starving  creatures  might  be 
fed  at  the  cost  of  them. 

They  have  so  much  of  it  in  England  that  the  monks 
attend  to  nothing  else.  A  set  of  creatures  who  ought 
to  be  lamenting  their  sins  fancy  they  can  please  God 
by  gurgling  in  their  throats.  Boys  are  kept  in  the 
English  Benedictine  colleges  solely  and  simply  to  sing 
morning  hymns  to  the  Virgin.  If  they  want  music 
let  them  sing  Psalms  like  rational  beings,  and  not  too 
many  of  those. 

Again,  Ephesians  v.  4,  on  filthiness  and  foolish 
talking :  — 

Monks  and  priests  have  a  detestable  trick  of  bur- 
lesquing Scripture.  When  they  wish  to  be  specially 
malicious,  they  take  the  Magnificat  or  the  Te  Deum 
and  introduce  infamous  words  into  them,  making 
themselves  as  hateful  when  they  would  be  witty  as 
when  they  are  serious. 

1  Timothy  i.  G,  on  vain  disputations  :  — 

Theologians  are  never  tired  of  discussing  the  modes 
of  sin,  whether  it  be  a  privation  in  the  soul  or  a  spot 
on  the  soul.  Why  is  it  not  enough  simply  to  hate 
sin?  Again,  we  have  been  disputing  for  ages  whether 
the  grace  by  which  God  loves  us  and  the  grace  by 
which  we  love  God  are  one  and  the  same  grace.  We 
dispute  how  the  Father  differs  from  the  Son,  and  both 
from  the  Holy  Ghost,  whether  it  be  a  difference  of 


124  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasynus. 

fact  or  a  difference  of  relation,  and  how  three  can  be 
one  when  neither  of  the  three  is  the  other.  We  dis- 
pute how  the  material  fire  which  is  to  torture  wicked 
souls  can  act  on  a  substance  which  is  not  material. 
Entire  lives  are  wasted  on  these  speculations,  and 
men  quarrel  and  curse  and  come  to  blows  about  them. 
Then  there  are  endless  questionings  about  baptism, 
about  synaxis,  about  penance,  when  no  answer  is  possi- 
ble, and  the  answer,  if  we  could  find  one,  would  be 
useless  to  us.1  Again,  about  God's  power  and  the 
Pope's  power.  Can  God  order  men  to  do  ill  ?  Can 
He  order  them,  for  instance,  to  hate  Himself,  or  to 
abstain  from  doing  good  or  from  loving  Him  ?  Can 
God  produce  an  infinite  in  all  dimensions?  Could 
He  have  made  the  world  better  than  it  is  ?  Can  He 
make  a  man  incapable  of  sin  ?  Can  He  reveal  to  any 
man  whether  he  will  be  saved  or  damned  ?  Can  He 
understand  anything  which  has  no  relation  to  Him- 
self ?  Can  He  create  a  universal  which  has  no  partic- 
ulars ?  Can  He  be  comprehended  under  a  predicate  ? 
Can  the  creating  power  be  communicated  to  a  crea- 
ture ?  Can  He  make  a  thing  done  not  to  have  been 
done  ?  Can  He  make  a  harlot  into  a  virgin  ?  Can 
the  three  Persons  assume  the  same  nature  at  the  same 
time  ?  Is  the  proposition  that  God  is  a  beetle  or  a 
pumpkin  as  probable  antecedently  as  the  proposition 
that  God  is  man?  Did  God  assume  individual  hu- 
manity or  personal  humanity?  Are  the  Divine  per- 
sons numerically  three,  or  in  what  sense  three?  Or, 
again,  of  the  Pope  —  can  a  Pope  annul  a  decree  of  an 
Apostle?  Can  he  make  a  decree  which  contradicts 
the  Gospel  ?  Can  he  add  a  new  article  to  the  Creed  ? 
Has  he  greater  power  than  Peter,  or  the  same  power  ? 
Can  he  command  angels  ?  Can  he  abolish  purgatory  ? 
Is  the  Pope  man,  or  is  he  quasi-God,  or  has  he  both 
natures,  like  Christ?  It  is  not  recorded  that  Christ 
delivered  a  soul  out  of  purgatory.  Is  the  Pope  more 
merciful  than  Christ  ?  Can  the  Pope  be  mistaken  ? 
Hundreds  of  such  questions  are  debated  by  distin- 
1  Synaxis  was  an  explanation  of  the  Real  Presence. 


Lecture   VII  125 

giiished  theologians,  and  the  objects  of  them  are  bet- 
ter unknown  than  known.  It  is  all  vanity.  Com- 
pared with  Christ,  the  best  of  men  are  but  worms. 
Do  they  imagine  they  will  please  Pope  Leo?  The 
schoolmen  have  been  arguing  for  generations  whether 
the  proposition  that  Christ  exists  from  eternity  is 
correctly  stated ;  whether  He  is  compounded  of  two 
natures  or  consists  of  two  natures  ;  whether  He  is 
conjlatus,  or  commixtus,  or  cong hit hiatus,  or  coaug- 
mentatus,  or  -gcmhuitus.,  or  copulatus.  The  present 
opinion  is  that  neither  of  these  participles  is  right, 
and  we  are  to  have  a  new  word,  unitus,  which  still  is 
to  explain  nothing.  If  they  are  asked  if  the  human 
nature  is  united  to  the  Divine,  they  say  it  is  a  pious 
opinion.  If  asked  whether  the  Divine  Nature  is 
united  to  the  human,  they  hesitate  and  will  not  affirm, 
And  all  this  stuff,  of  which  we  know  nothing  and  are 
not  required  to  know  anything,  they  treat  as  the  cita- 
del of  our  faith. 

They  say  that  "  person  "  does  not  signify  relation 
of  origin,  but  duplex  negation  of  communicability  in 
genere,  that  is,  it  connotes  something  positive,  and  in 
a  noun  of  the  first  instance,  not  the  second.  They 
say  the  persons  of  the  Divine  Nature  exist  recipro- 
cally by  circumincession,  and  circumincession  is  when 
a  thing  subsists  really  in  something  else  which  is 
really  distinct,  by  the  mutual  assistance  of  presential- 
ity  in  the  same  essence.  They  define  the  personal  or 
hypostatic  union  as  the  relation  of  a  real  disquipara- 
tion  in  one  extreme,  with  no  correspondent  at  the 
other.  The  union  of  the  Word  in  Christ  is  a  relation 
introduced  from  without,  and  this  relation  is  not  that 
of  an  effect  to  a  cause,  but  of  a  sustentificate  to  a 
sustentificans. 

Over  speculations  like  these  theologians  professing 
to  teach  Christianity  have  been  squandering  their 
lives.  One  of  them,  an  acquaintance  of  my  own,  told 
me  that  nine  years  of  study  would  not  enable  me  to 
understand  the  preface  of  Scotus  to  Peter  Lombard. 
Another  told  me  that  to  understand  a  single  proposi- 


126  Life   and  Letters   of  Erasmus. 

tion  of  Scotus  I  must  know  the  whole  of  his  "  Meta- 
physics." 

So  much  on  scholastic  theology.  We  turn  next  to 
practice.  1  Timothy  iii.  2,  on  "  the  husband  of  one 
wife  " :  — 

Because  (says  Erasmus)  in  an  age  when  priests 
were  few  and  widely  scattered  St.  Paul  directed  that 
no  one  should  be  made  a  bishop  who  had  been 
married  a  second  time,  bishops,  priests,  and  deacons 
are  now  forbidden  to  marry  at  all.  Other  qualifica- 
tions are  laid  down  by  St.  Paul  as  required  for  a 
bishop's  office,  a  long  list  of  them.  But  not  one  at 
present  is  held  essential,  except  this  one  of  abstinence 
from  marriage.  Homicide,  parricide,  incest,  piracy, 
sodomy,  sacrilege,  these  can  be  got  over,  but  marriage 
is  fatal.  There  are  priests  now  in  vast  numbers, 
enormous  herds  of  them,  seculars  and  regulars,  and  it 
is  notorious  that  very  few  of  them  are  chaste.  The 
great  proportion  fall  into  lust  and  incest,  and  open 
profligacy.  It  would  surely  be  better  if  those  who 
cannot  contain  should  be  allowed  lawful  wives  of 
their  own,  and  so  escape  this  foul  and  miserable  pol- 
lution. In  the  world  we  live  in  the  celibates  are 
many  and  the  chaste  are  few.  A  man  is  not  chaste 
who  abstains  only  because  the  law  commands  him, 
and  such  of  our  modern  clergy  as  keep  themselves 
out  of  mischief  do  it  more  from  fear  of  the  law  than 
from  conscience.  They  dread  losing  their  benefices 
or  missing  their  promotions. 

Such  are  extracts  from  the  reflections  upon  the 
doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Catholic  Church  which 
were  launched  upon  the  world  in  the  notes  to  the 
New  Testament  by  Erasmus,  some  on  the  first  publi- 
cation, some  added  as  edition  followed  edition.  They 
were  not  thrown  out  as  satires,  or  in  controversial 
tracts  or  pamphlets.  They  were  deliberate  accusa- 
tions attached  to  the  sacred  text,  where  the  religion 


Lecture   VII  127 

which  was  taught  by  Christ  and  the  Apostles  and  the 
degenerate  superstition  which  had  taken  its  place 
could  be  contrasted  side  by  side.  Nothing  was 
spared ;  ritual  and  ceremony,  dogmatic  theology, 
philosophy,  and  personal  character  were  tried  by 
what  all  were  compelled  verbally  to  acknowledge  to 
be  the  standard  whose  awful  countenance  was  now 
practically  revealed  for  the  first  time  for  many  cen- 
turies. Bishops,  seculars,  monks  were  dragged  out  to 
judgment,  and  hung  as  on  a  public  gibbet,  in  the 
light  of  the  pages  of  the  most  sacred  of  all  books, 
published  with  the  leave  and  approbation  of  the  Holy 
Father  himself. 

Never  was  volume  more  passionately  devoured.  A 
hundred  thousand  copies  were  soon  sold  in  France 
alone.  The  fire  spread,  as  it  spread  behind  Sam- 
son's foxes  in  the  Philistines'  corn.  The  clergy's 
skins  were  tender  from  long  impunity.  They  shrieked 
from  pulpit  and  platform,  and  made  Europe  ring 
with  their  clamour.  The  louder  they  cried  the  more 
clearly  Europe  perceived  the  justice  of  their  chastise- 
ment. The  words  of  the  Bible  have  been  so  long 
familiar  to  us  that  we  can  hardly  realise  what  the 
effect  must  have  been  when  the  Gospel  was  brought 
out  fresh  and  visible  before  the  astonished  eyes  of 
mankind. 

The  book  was  not  actually  published  till  Erasmus 
had  left  England,  but  the  fame  of  it  had  anticipated 
its  appearance.  The  ruling  powers  of  the  Netherlands 
had  determined  at  last  to  reclaim  their  most  brilliant 
citizen,  and  to  make  a  formal  provision  for  him. 
England  this  time  had  seen  the  last  of  Erasmus.  He 
was  never  to  return  to  it  again,  or  at  least  not  for  a 
protracted  stay.  His  chief  distress  was  at  parting 
from  his  friends.     Before  he  sailed  he  spent  a  fort- 


128  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

night  with  Bishop  Fisher  at  Rochester.  Sir  Thomas 
More  came  down  there  to  see  the  last  of  him,  and  the 
meeting  and  parting  of  these  three  is  doubly  affecting 
when  one  thinks  of  what  Erasmus  was  to  become  and 
to  do,  and  of  the  fate  which  was  waiting  More  and 
Fisher  in  a  storm  which  Erasmus  was  to  do  so  much 
to  raise. 

Little  could  either  they  or  their  guest  have  dreamt 
of  what  was  to  be.  Doubtless  they  believed  that, 
with  a  liberal  Pope  Leo,  there  was  an  era  before 
them  of  moderate  reform.  One  would  give  much  for 
a  record  of  their  talk.  The  spiritual  world  was  not 
then  draped  in  solemn  inanities.  Bishops  wore  no 
wigs,  not  even  aprons  or  gaiters,  and  warm  blood  ran 
in  the  veins  of  the  future  martyrs  and  the  scholar  of 
Rotterdam.  They  could  jest  at  the  ridiculous.  The 
condition  of  the  Church  was  a  comedy  as  well  as  a 
tragedy,  a  thing  for  laughter  and  a  thing  for  tears  — 
the  laughter,  it  is  likely,  predominating.  Out  of  this 
Rochester  visit  grew  the  wittiest  of  all  Erasmus's 
writings,  the  "  Encomium  Morise,"  or  "  Praise  of 
Folly,"  with  a  play  upon  More's  name.  It  was  com- 
posed at  More's  instigation,  first  sketched  at  Chelsea, 
then  talked  over  at  Rochester,  cast  finally  into  form 
on  a  ride  from  Calais  to  Brussels,  where  it  was  writ- 
ten down  with  a  week's  labour. 

Of  the  "  Praise  of  Folly  "  I  shall  speak  to  you  in 
the  next  lecture. 


LECTURE  VIII. 

I  am  going-  to  speak  to  you  this  evening  about  the 
"  Encomium  MoriaB,"  if  not  the  most  remarkable,  yet 
the  most  effective  of  all  Erasmus's  writings.  It  ori- 
ginated, as  I  told  you,  in  his  conversations  with  More 
at  Chelsea.  It  was  put  into  form  and  words  at  inter- 
vals after  Erasmus's  return  to  the  Continent,  and  the 
title  is  a  humorous  play  on  More's  own  name.  It 
was  brought  out  almost  simultaneously  with  the  edi- 
tion of  the  New  Testament. 

Folly,  Mbria,  speaks  in  her  own  name  and  declares 
herself  the  frankest  of  beings.  The  jester  of  the  age 
was  often  the  wisest  man ;  the  so-called  wise  men 
were  often  the  stupidest  of  blockheads :  and  the  play 
of  wit  goes  on  from  one  aspect  to  the  other,  the  ape 
showing  behind  the  purple  and  the  ass  under  the 
lion's  skin.  Moria  tells  us  that  she  is  no  child 
of  Orcus  or  Saturn,  or  such  antiquated  dignitaries. 
Plutus  begat  her,  not  out  of  his  own  brain  as  Jupiter 
begat  Pallas,  but  out  of  a  charming  creature  called 
Youth.  She  was  brought  up  in  the  Fortunate  Islands 
by  two  seductive  nymphs,  Drink  and  Ignorance.  Her 
companions  were  Self-love,  Indolence,  and  Pleasure, 
and  she  herself  was  the  moving  principle  of  human 
existence.  Neither  man  nor  woman  would  ever  think 
of  marrying  without  Folly.  Folly  was  the  sunshine 
of  ordinary  life.  From  Folly  sprang  solemn-faced 
philosophers.  From  Folly  came  their  successors,  the 
monks,  and  kings,  and  priests,  and  popes.     No  god- 


130  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

(less  bad  so  many  worshippers  as  she,  or  was  ever 
adored  with  more  ardent  devotion.  Pious  mortals  of- 
fered candles  to  the  Virgo  Deipara  in  daylight,  when 
she  could  see  without  candles.  But  they  did  not  try 
to  imitate  the  virgin.  They  kept  their  imitation  for 
her  rival,  Folly.  The  whole  world  was  Folly's  tem- 
ple, and  she  needed  no  images,  for  each  one  of  her 
worshippers  was  an  image  of  her  himself. 

Erasmus  himself  now  assumes  Folly's  person,  and 
proceeds  to  comment  in  character  on  the  aspect  of 
things  around  him,  showing  occasionally  his  own 
features  behind  the  mask.  After  various  observa- 
tions he  comes  to  his  favourite  subject,  the  scholastic 
divines. 

It  might  be  wiser  for  me  to  avoid  Camarina  and 
say  nothing  of  theologians.  They  are  a  proud,  sus- 
ceptible race.  They  will  smother  me  under  six  hun- 
dred dogmas.  They  will  call  me  heretic,  and  bring 
thunderbolts  out  of  their  arsenals,  where  they  keep 
whole  magazines  of  them  for  their  enemies.  Still 
they  are  Folly's  servants,  though  they  disown  their 
mistress.  They  live  in  the  third  heaven,  adoring 
their  own  persons  and  disdaining  the  poor  crawlers 
upon  earth.  They  are  surrounded  with  a  body- 
guard of  definitions,  conclusions,  corollaries,  proposi- 
tions explicit  and  propositions  implicit.  Vulcan's 
chains  will  not  bind  them.  They  cut  the  links  with 
a  distinction  as  with  the  stroke  of  an  axe.  They  will 
tell  you  how  the  world  was  created.  They  will  show 
you  the  crack  where  Sin  crept  in  and  corrupted 
mankind.  They  will  explain  to  you  how  Christ  was 
formed  in  the  Virgin's  womb ;  how  accident  subsists 
in  synaxis  without  domicile  in  'place.  The  most  ordi- 
nary of  them  can  do  this.  Those  more  fully  initiated 
explain  further  whether  there  is  an  instans  in  Divine 
generation ;  whether  in  Christ  there  is  more  than  a 
single  filiation  ;  whether  "  the  Father  hates  the  Son  " 


Lecture   VIII.  131 

is  a  possible  proposition ;  whether  God  can  become 
the  substance  of  a  woman,  of  an  ass,  of  a  pumpkin, 
or  of  the  devil,  and  whether,  if  so,  a  pumpkin  coidd 
preach  a  sermon,  or  work  miracles,  or  be  crucified. 

And  they  can  discover  a  thousand  other  things 
to  you  besides  these.  They  will  make  you  under- 
stand notions,  and  instants,  formalities,  and  quiddi- 
ties, things  which  no  eyes  ever  saw,  unless  they  were 
eyes  which  could  see  in  the  dark  what  had  no  exist- 
ence. Like  the  Stoics,  they  have  their  paradoxes  — 
whether  it  is  a  smaller  crime  to  kill  a  thousand  men 
than  to  mend  a  beggar's  shoe  on  a  Sunday ;  whether 
it  is  better  that  the  whole  world  should  perish  than 
that  a  woman  should  tell  one  small  lie.  Then  there 
are  Realists,  Nominalists,  Thomists,  Albertists,  Occa- 
mists,  Scotists  —  all  so  learned  that  an  apostle  would 
have  no  chance  with  them  in  argument.  They  will 
tell  you  that,  although  St.  Paul  could  define  what 
Faith  is,  yet  he  could  not  define  it  adequately  as  they 
can.  An  apostle  might  affirm  the  synaxis ;  but  if  an 
apostle  was  asked  about  the  terminus  ad  quern  and 
the  terminus  a  quo  of  Transubstantiation,  or  how  one 
body  could  be  in  two  places  at  once,  or  how  Christ's 
body  in  heaven  differed  from  Christ's  body  on  the 
cross  or  in  the  sacrament,  neither  Paul  nor  Peter 
could  explain  half  as  well  as  the  Scotists.  Doubtless 
Peter  and  the  other  apostles  knew  the  Mother  of  Jesus, 
but  they  did  not  know  as  well  as  a  modern  divine  how 
she  escaped  the  taint  of  Adam's  sin.  Peter  received 
the  keys  of  knowledge  and  power,  but  Peter  did  not 
comprehend  how  he  could  have  the  key  of  knowledge 
and  yet  be  without  knowledge.  Apostles  baptized, 
but  they  could  not  lay  out  properly  the  formal  ma- 
terial efficient  and  final  causes  of  Baptism,  or  distin- 
guish between  the  delible  and  the  indelible  effects  of 
it  upon  character.  They  prayed  to  God  ;  they  did 
not  know  that  to  pray  to  a  figure  drawn  with  char- 
coal on  a  wall  would  be  equally  efficacious.  They 
abhorred  sin,  but  not  one  of  them  coidd  tell  what  sin 
was    unless   the    Scotists  helped    him.     The  head  of 


132  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Jupiter  was  not  so  full  of  conundrums  when  he  called 
for  Vulcan  with  his  axe  to  deliver  him. 

The  object  of  "Moria"  was  evidently  to  turn  the 
whole  existing  scheme  of  theology  into  ridicule.  As 
little  would  Erasmus  spare  the  theologians  them- 
selves, and,  once  off  upon  his  humour,  he  poured  in 
arrow  upon  arrow. 

Our  theologians  (he  says)  require  to  be  addressed 
as  Magister  JVbster.  You  must  not  say  Noster  J\I<hj- 
ister,  and  you  must  be  careful  to  write  the  words  in 
capital  letters.  They  call  themselves  Religiosi  et 
Monachi,  yet  most  of  them  have  no  religion  at  all ; 
and  it  is  accounted  unlucky  to  meet  a  priest  in  the 
road. 

They  call  it  a  sign  of  holiness  to  be  unable  to  read. 
They  bray  out  the  Psalms  in  the  churches  like  so 
many  jackasses.  They  do  not  understand  a  word  of 
them,  but  they  fancy  the  sound  is  soothing  to  the  ears 
of  the  saints.  The  mendicant  friars  howl  for  alms 
along  the  street.  They  pretend  to  resemble  the 
Apostles,  and  they  are  lilthy,  ignorant,  impudent 
vagabonds.  They  have  their  rules,  forsooth.  Yes, 
rules  —  how  many  knots,  for  instance,  there  may  be 
in  a  shoe-string,  how  their  petticoats  should  be  cut  or 
coloured,  how  much  cloth  should  be  used  in  their 
hoods,  and  how  many  hours  they  may  sleep.  But  for 
all  else  —  for  conduct  and  character,  they  quarrel 
with  each  other  and  curse  each  other.  They  pretend 
to  poverty,  but  they  steal  into  honest  men's  houses 
and  pollute  them,  and,  wasps  as  they  are,  no  one  dares 
refuse  them  admittance  for  fear  of  their  stings.  They 
hold  the  secrets  of  every  family  through  the  confes- 
sional, and  when  they  are  drunk,  or  wish  to  amuse 
their  company,  they  let  them  out  to  the  world.  If 
any  wretched  man  dares  to  imitate  them  they  pay  him 
off  from  the  pulpits,  and  they  never  stop  their  bark- 
ing till  you  fling  them  a  piece  of  meat. 

Immortal   gods,  never  were    such   stage-players  as 


Lecture    VIII.  133 

these  friars.  They  gesticulate.  They  vary  their 
voices.  They  fill  the  air  with  their  noise.  To  be  a 
friar  mendicant  is  a  professional  mystery,  and  brother 
instructs  brother.  I  heard  one  of  them  once  —  A 
fool  f  No,  a  learned  man  —  explaining  the  Trinity. 
He  was  an  original,  and  took  a  line  of  his  own.  He 
went  on  the  parts  of  speech.  He  showed  how  noun 
agreed  with  verb  and  adjective  with  substantive,  and 
made  out  a  grammatical  triad  as  mathematicians 
draw  triangles.  Another  old  man  —  he  was  over 
eighty  —  might  have  been  Scotus  come  to  life  again. 
He  discovered  the  properties  of  Christ  in  the  letters 
of  the  word  Jesus.  The  three  inflexions  exhibited 
the  triple  nature  —  Jesus,  Jesum,  Jesu.  That  is 
summits,  medius,  ultimus.  I  felt  as  if  I  was  turning 
to  stone.  They  lift  their  theologic  brows.  They 
talk  of  their  doctors  solemn,  doctors  subtle  and  most 
subtle,  doctors  seraphic,  doctors  cherubic,  doctors 
holy,  doctors  irrefragable.  They  have  their  syllo- 
gisms, their  majors  and  minors,  inferences,  corollar- 
ies, suppositions  ;  and,  for  a  fifth  act  of  the  play, 
they  tell  some  absurd  story  and  interpret  it  allegori- 
cally,  tropologically,  anagogically,  and  make  it  into  a 
chimera  more  extravagant  than  poet  ever  invented. 
They  open  their  sermons  quietly,  and  begin  in  a  tone 
so  low  that  they  can  scarcely  hear  themselves.  Then 
suddenly  they  raise  their  voices  and  shout,  when 
there  is  nothing  to  shout  about.  They  are  directed  to 
be  entertaining,  so  they  crack  jokes  as  if  they  were 
asses  playing  the  fiddle.  They  practise  all  the  tricks 
of  the  platform,  and  use  them  badly,  and  yet  they 
are  admired  —  wonderfully  admired  —  by  women  who 
are  on  bad  terms  with  their  husbands. 

Leaving  the  friars  prostrate, "  Moria  "  sets  on  other 
victims,  and  gives  a  turn  to  princes  and  courtiers  ; 
but  apparently  she  finds  less  to  laugh  at  in  the  laity, 
and  goes  back  to  give  another  toss  with  the  horn  to 
the  Church  and  the  Church's  special  representatives 
—  popes,   cardinals,   bishops.     Their   splendour   and 


134  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

worldliness  are  mocked  at,  and  contrasted  with  the 
simplicity  of  the  Galilean  fishermen.  Priestly  and 
monastic  absurdity  of  ignorance  comes  next. 

I  was  lately  (says  Moria)  at  a  theological  discus- 
sion. I  am  often  present,  indeed,  on  such  occasions. 
Someone  asked  what  authority  there  was  in  Scripture 
for  burning  heretics.  A  sour-looking  old  man  said 
that  St.  Paul  had  specially  ordered  it,  and  being 
asked  where,  answered  in  a  voice  of  thunder,  "  Hau-et- 
icum  hominem,  post  unam  et  secundam  correptionein 
devita."  The  audience  stared,  wondering  what  he 
meant.  He  explained  that  de  vita  meant  de  vita  tol- 
lere  —  to  put  away  out  of  life.  We  all  laughed,  and 
a  friend  of  the  old  man  covered  the  blunder  by  pro- 
ducing "  Maleficos  non  patieris  vivere."  Every  heretic 
is  malefieus,  he  said,  and  therefore  must  not  be  suf- 
fered to  live.  No  one  present  seemed  to  know  that 
the  Hebrew  word  translated  malefieus  means  a  witch. 

Simultaneously  with  "  Moria  "  another  production 
appeared,  which  divided  public  attention  with  it. 
Julius  II.,  with  his  wars  and  his  intrigues,  had 
brought  all  Europe  into  war.  In  this  preliminary 
witch  dance  the  partners  were  combined  on  lines 
widely  different  from  those  on  which  they  afterwards 
arranged  themselves.  Spain,  England,  and  the  Em- 
pire were  allies  of  the  Papacy.  France,  the  special 
object  of  the  Pope's  fury,  stood  almost  alone,  in  a  po- 
sition almost  of  open  revolt  against  the  authority  of 
the  Roman  Church.  Julius  fought  his  battles  as  a 
temporal  sovereign,  but  he  used  his  spiritual  thunder- 
bolts to  reinforce  his  cannon,  and  the  Western 
Church  was  on  the  eve  of  a  schism.  The  French 
Church  stood  by  its  sovereign.  Julius  excommuni- 
cated Louis,  and  placed  France  under  an  interdict. 
Louis  called  a  Provincial  Council,  which  claimed  the 
right,  asserted  afterwards  in  England  under  Henry 


Lecture   VIII.  135 

VIII.,  to  ecclesiastical  as  well  as  political  indepen- 
dence. The  Pope  excommunicated  the  cardinals  and 
prelates  who  took  part  in  it,  declared  the  King  de- 
posed, forbade  his  subjects  to  obey  him,  and  fulmi- 
nated in  the  old  style  of  Gregory  VII.  and  Innocent 
III.  Henry  VIII.  and  the  English  nation  plunged 
into  the  quarrel  as  the  allies  of  the  Holy  See.  Henry 
VIII.  stood  out  as  the  champion  of  Catholic  unity, 
while  France  was  challenging  the  sovereign  rights  of 
the  Papacy,  and  insisting  on  ecclesiastical  indepen- 
dence. Had  the  struggle  gone  forward,  Louis  would 
have  led  the  revolt,  and  the  course  of  European  his- 
tory would  have  been  all  different.  The  death  of 
Julius  postponed  the  inevitable  convulsion.  Leo  X. 
succeeded  to  the  papal  throne.  Interdicts  and  excom- 
munications were  taken  off,  and  there  was  general 
peace.  But  the  hurricane  left  the  sea  still  agitated. 
The  waves  still  heaved  of  the  passions  which  had  been 
stirred,  and  the  name  of  the  intriguing,  fighting,  inso- 
lent Julius  was  abhorred  by  the  French  nation.  In 
1513,  after  the  peace  had  been  concluded,  there  ap- 
peared in  Paris  a  dramatic  dialogue,  so  popular  that 
it  was  brought  upon  the  stage.  Julius,  attended  by 
a  familiar  spirit,  appears  at  the  gate  of  Paradise 
demanding  to  be  admitted.  St.  Peter  questions, 
challenges,  cross-questions,  and  the  Pope  replies  in 
character,  audacious  as  a  Titan  attempting  to  scale 
the  home  of  tire  gods. 

The  Dialogue  was  anonymous.  Who  could  have 
written  it  ?  Some  gave  it  to  Faustus  Anderlin  ;  but 
Anderlin  was  indolent  and  easy-going,  not  at  all 
likely  to  have  kindled  himself  into  such  a  flame  of 
scorn.  Anderlin,  too,  would  have  claimed  the  author- 
ship. He  had  nothing  to  fear,  and  would  only  have 
added  to  his  popularity.     Opinion  rapidly  settled  on 


136  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Erasmus.  Erasmus  hated  wars,  hated  popes  espe- 
cially who  used  the  sword  of  the  flesh  as  well  as  of 
the  spirit  for  worldly  ambition.  Erasmus  had  looked 
on  with  disgust  and  scorn  at  the  triumphal  procession 
on  the  annexation  of  Bologna,  and  his  friends  in  the 
Sacred  College  were  no  friends  to  Julius.  The  writer, 
whoever  he  was,  knew  France  well,  knew  Rome  well, 
and  was  acquainted  with  the  inmost  workings  of  the 
ecclesiastical  mystery.  The  Dialogue  became  the 
talk  of  Europe.  Erasmus  must  be  the  man.  No 
other  writer  could  use  a  pen  so  finely  pointed  or  so 
dipped  in  gall.     "  Aut  Erasmus,  ant  diabolus." 

I  le  denied  the  authorship  himself ;  he  says  dis- 
tinctly that  he  never  published  anything  to  which  he 
did  not  set  his  name.  And,  again,  he  must  have 
known  that  such  a  production  must  be  fatal  to  any 
hopes  of  promotion  or  support  at  Rome.  Leo  X. 
might  have  been  privately  amused,  but  could  not 
decently  have  patronised  a  man  who  had  turned  the 
Papacy  itself  into  contempt.  As  long  as  the  author- 
ship was  unproved,  however,  Erasmus  could  not  be 
made  responsible  for  it,  and  other  great  writers  be- 
sides Erasmus  have  held  themselves  entitled  to  hide 
behind  a  blank  title-page.  Even  in  his  denials  there 
was  latent  mockery.  He  says,  if  it  had  been  his,  it 
would  have  been  in  better  Latin  ;  but  the  Latin  is  as 
good  as  his  own.  Cardinal  Campegio,  who  believed 
him  guilty,  wrote  to  remonstrate.  Erasmus  calmly 
told  him  that  he  had  heard  persons  attribute  the 
authorship  to  Campegio  himself.  Sir  Thomas  More 
accepted  the  denial  as  sufficient  to  his  own  mind,  but 
admitted  that  it  was  not  conclusive.  "  If  Erasmus  did 
write  it,  well,  what  then  ?  "  *  was  More's  final  word 
about  it.  I  have  made  a  translation  of  "  Julius,"  and 
1  See  Appendix  to  this  Lecture. 


Lecture    VIII.  137 

I  mean  to  read  it  to  you.  Some  of  you  will  doubtless 
be  taking  this  part  of  European  history  into  the 
schools.  You  may  have  questions  to  answer  about 
tins  remarkable  successor  of  St.  Peter,  and  nowhere 
else  will  you  find  so  lively  an  account  of  him  and  his 
doings.  It  will  be  better  worth  your  listening  to  than 
any  lecture  of  mine. 

But  to  return  to  the  "  Encomium  Moria?."  Through 
the  printing-press  it  flew  over  Western  Christendom, 
through  France,  through  Spain,  through  England  and 
Germany,  and,  like  an  explosion  of  spiritual  dyna- 
mite, it  left  monks  and  clergy  in  wreck  and  confusion, 
the  objects  of  universal  laughter.  The  "Epistoke 
obscurorum  Virorum  "  had  been  coarse  and  obscene,  a 
book  to  be  read  in  private  if  read  at  all,  and  not  to 
be  talked  about.  "  Moria "  was  delicate  and  witty, 
running  through  the  heart  like  a  polished  rapier  and 
killing  dead  in  the  politest  manner  in  the  world. 
Princes  and  secular  politicians  took  no  offence ;  they 
were  rather  entertained,  and  delighted  to  see  the  pun- 
ishment of  an  insolent  order  which  had  so  long  defied 
them.  Leo  X.  read  "Moria,"  and  only  observed, 
"Here  is  our  old  friend  again."  "Moria"  and  the 
New  Testament  were  the  voice  and  protest  of  the 
Christian  laity  against  the  parody  of  a  Church  which 
pretended  to  be  their  spiritual  master.  The  clergy  at 
first  were  stunned.  When  they  collected  themselves, 
they  began  in  the  usual  way  to  cry  Antichrist  and 
heresy,  and  clamour  for  sword  and  faggot.  But  it 
was  no  heresy  to  denounce  profligacy  or  gross  super- 
stitions;  and  scholastic  theology,  though  universally 
accepted  by  the  regular  orders  and  the  universities, 
was  not  yet  guaranteed  and  guarded  from  question 
by  an  (Ecumenical  Council.  Most  fools  and  many 
women,  however,  were   on   the   clergy's   side,  and   a 


138  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

party  which  lias  the  fools  at  its  back  has  usually  a 
majority  of  numbers.  Bishops  fulminated.  Univer- 
sities, Cambridge  and  Oxford  among  them,  forbade 
students  to  read  Erasmus's  writings  or  booksellers  to 
sell  them.  Erasmus  himself  was  safe  from  prosecu- 
tion while  he  was  protected  by  the  Pope  and  the  civil 
governments,  and  hard  as  he  had  struck  he  had  said 
nothing  for  which  the  Church  Courts  could  openly 
punish  him.  His  admirers  were  less  prudent  or  less 
skilful,  and  were  sent  to  stake  or  prison  if  they  com- 
mitted themselves.  As  the  wrath  and  resentment 
took  form,  it  concentrated  itself  on  the  new  learn- 
ing. "  See  what  comes  of  Greek,"  the  clergy  cried. 
"  Did  n't  we  always  say  so  ?  We  will  have  no  Greek, 
we  will  stick  to  our  Scotus  and  Aquinas."  And  so 
the  battle  began  between  ignorance  and  intelligence, 
between  the  friends  of  darkness  and  the  friends  of 
light,  which  raged  on  till  Luther  spoke  at  Witten- 
berg, and  the  contest  on  languages  was  lost  in  larger 
issues. 

In  England,  where  Erasmus  was  personally  known, 
the  outcry  was  the  loudest,  especially  at  the  universi- 
ties. Erasmus  had  been  at  Oxford  and  had  been  at 
Cambridge.  It  was  assumed  that  he  had  left  poison 
behind  him.  Oxford  divided  itself  into  two  bodies, 
calling  themselves  Greeks  and  Trojans,  the  Trojans 
enormously  preponderating. 

John  Mill  called  English  Conservatives  the  stupid 
party.  Well,  stupidity  in  its  place  is  not  always  a 
bad  thing.  I  have  a  high  respect  for  Conservatism. 
Conservatism,  at  least,  represents  ideas  which  have 
proved  themselves  capable  of  being  practically  worked. 
The  ideas  of  progress  may  be  beautiful  to  look  at  and 
to  talk  about,  but  whether  they  will  work  or  not  no 
one  knows  till  they  are  tried.     Out  of  every  hundred 


Lecture    VIII.  139 

new  ideas  ninety-nine  are  generally  nonsense.  The 
odd  one  will  be  the  egg  which  contains  the  whole 
future  in  it ;  but  until  the  exceptional  egg  proves  its 
vitality  by  breaking  its  shell,  the  wisest  cannot  fore- 
see how  it  will  develop. 

The  monks,  as  I  observed  to  you  the  other  day, 
said  that  Erasmus  laid  the  egg  and  Luther  hatched 
it.  Yes,  said  Erasmus,  but  the  egg  I  laid  was  a  hen, 
and  Luther  hatched  a  game-cock.  No  wise  man  will 
lightly  change  the  old  for  the  new.  The  misfortune 
is  that  the  world  waits  too  long  over  the  iucubation, 
and  the  new  creature  often  changes  its  nature  in 
struggling  to  get  born. 

Oxford  stayed  thus  too  long  incubating.  Light 
had  come  into  the  world,  and  the  dawn  was  spread- 
ing. To  other  eyes,  if  not  to  the  eyes  of  Oxford  dig- 
nitaries, it  had  become  clear  that  it  was  no  use  to 
draw  curtains  and  close  shutters. 

I  shall  now  read  to  you  two  letters  written  on  this 
occasion  by  Sir  Thomas  More.  They  are  worth  whole 
volumes  of  general  history.  You  can  understand  the 
actions  of  men  in  past  times  only  when  you  under- 
stand their  tempers  and  passions.  The  English  Court 
was  at  Abingdon  on  progress.  As  Oxford  was  so 
near,  the  news  of  what  was  going  on  there  reached 
the  King's  ears,  and  Sir  T.  More,  at  Henry's  direc- 
tion, addressed  thus  the  governing  body  of  the  Uni- 
versity : x  — 

I  heard  lately  that  either  in  some  fools'  frolic,  or 
from  your  dislike  of  the  study  of  Greek,  a  clique  had 
been  formed  among  you  calling  themselves  Trojans; 
that  one  of  you,  who  had  more  years  than  wisdom, 
had  styled  himself  Priam,  another  Hector,  another 
Paris,  and  so  forth  ;  and  that  the  object  was  to  throw 

1  Jortin,  vol.  ii.  appendix  viii. 


140  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus.     \ 

ridicule  on  the  Greek  language  and  literature.  Gre- 
cians are  to  be  mocked  and  jeered  at  by  Trojans, 
whose  laughter  betrays  their  ignorance.  An  ancient 
adage  says :  "  Sero  sapiunt  Phryges."  This  action  of 
yours  is  foolish  in  itself,  and  gives  an  unpleasing  im- 
pression of  your  general  intelligence.  I  was  sorry  to 
hear  that  men  of  learning  were  making  so  poor  a  use 
of  their  leisure,  but  I  had  concluded  that  in  a  large 
number  there  would  always  be  some  blockheads,  and 
that  it  was  only  a  passing  absurdity. 

I  have  been  informed,  however,  on  coming  to  this 
town  of  Abingdon,  that  folly  has  grown  into  madness, 
and  that  one  of  these  Trojans,  who  thinks  himself  a 
genius,  has  been  preaching  a  course  of  sermons  dur- 
ing Lent,  denouncing  not  Greek  classics  only,  but 
Latin  classics  too,  and  all  liberal  education.  A  fool's 
speech  comes  out  of  a  fool's  head.  He  did  not,  I  un- 
derstand, preach  on  a  text  from  Scripture.  He  took 
some  absurd  English  proverb,  and  at  this  most  sacred 
season  of  the  year,  in  the  presence  of  a  vast  assembly, 
in  the  church  of  God,  and  within  sight  of  the  body  of 
Christ,  he  turned  a  Lent  sermon  into  a  bacchanalian 
farce. 

What  must  have  been  the  feeling  of  his  hearers 
when  they  saw  their  preacher  grinning  like  an  ape, 
and  instead  of  receiving  the  word  of  God  from  him 
received  only  an  onslaught  upon  learning  ? 

If  the  worthy  man  had  been  a  hermit,  had  he  come 
out  of  a  desert  to  preach  that  the  road  to  life  was 
through  vigils  and  fasting  and  prayer,  that  all  else 
was  useless,  and  that  learning  was  a  snare,  his  sim- 
plicity might  be  forgiven  and  something  might  be 
alleged  in  his  favour.  But  for  a  scholar  in  gown  and 
hood,  in  the  midst  of  an  academy  which  exists  only 
for  the  sake  of  learning,  so  to  rail  at  it  is  malicious 
impudence.  What  right  has  he  to  denounce  Latin, 
of  which  he  knows  little  ;  Science,  of  which  he  knows 
less  ;  and  Greek,  of  which  he  knows  nothing?  He 
had  better  have  confined  himself  to  the  seven  deadly 
sins,  with  which  perhaps  he  has  closer  acquaintance. 


Lecture    VIII.  141 

Of  course  we  know  that  a  man  can  be  saved 
without  secular  learning.  Children  learn  from  their 
mothers  the  essential  truths  of  Christianity.  But 
students  are  sent  to  Oxford  to  receive  general  in- 
struction. They  do  not  go  there  merely  to  learn 
theology.  Some  go  to  learn  law,  some  to  learn  human 
nature  from  poets,  and  orators,  and  historians  — 
forms  of  knowledge  even  useful  to  preachers,  if  their 
congregations  are  not  to  think  them  fools.  Others 
again  go  to  universities  to  study  natural  science,  and 
philosophy,  and  art;  and  this  wonderful  gentleman 
is  to  condemn  the  whole  of  it  under  one  general  sen- 
tence. He  says  that  nothing  is  of  importance  except 
theology.  How  can  he  know  theology  if  he  is  igno- 
rant of  Hebrew,  and  Greek,  and  Latin  ?  He  thinks, 
I  presume,  that  it  can  all  be  found  in  the  scholastic 
conundrums.  Those  I  admit  can  be  learned  with  no 
particular  effort.  But  theology,  that  august  Queen 
of  Heaven,  demands  an  ampler  scope.  The  know- 
ledge of  God  can  be  gathered  only  out  of  Scripture  — 
Scripture  and  the  early  Catholic  Fathers.  That  was 
where  for  a  thousand  years  the  searchers  after  truth 
looked  for  it  and  found  it,  before  these  modern  para- 
doxes were  heard  of ;  and  if  he  fancies  that  Scripture 
and  the  Fathers  can  be  understood  without  a  know- 
ledge of  the  languages  in  which  the  Fathers  wrote,  he 
will  not  find  many  to  agree  with  him. 

He  will  pretend  perhaps  that  he  was  not  censuring 
learning  in  itself :  he  was  censuring  only  an  excessive 
devotion  to  it.  I  do  not  see  so  great  a  disposition  to 
sin  in  this  direction  that  it  needs  to  be  checked  in  a 
sermon.  He  calls  those  who  study  Greek  heretics. 
The  teachers  of  Greek,  he  says,  are  full-grown  devils, 
the  learners  of  Greek  are  little  devils,  and  he  was  aim- 
ing at  a  certain  person  whom  I  think  the  devil  would 
be  sorry  to  see  in  a  pulpit.  He  did  not  name  him, 
but  everyone  knew  to  whom  he  alluded.1  It  is  not  for 
me,  Domini  lllustrissimi,  to  defend  Greek.  You 
know  yourselves  that  it  needs  no  defence.  The  finest 
1  Of  course,  Erasmus. 


142  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

writings  on  all  subjects,  theology  included,  arc  in 
Greek.  The  Romans  had  no  philosophers  save  Cicero 
and  Seneca.  The  New  Testament  was  written  in 
Greek.  Your  Wisdoms  will  acknowledge  that  not  all 
Greek  scholars  are  fools,  and  you  will  not  allow  the 
study  of  it  to  be  put  down  by  sermons  or  private 
cabals. 

Make  these  gentlemen  understand  that,  unless  they 
promptly  cease  from  such  factious  doings,  we  outside 
will  have  a  word  to  say  about  it.  Every  man  who  has 
been  educated  at  your  University  has  as  much  interest 
in  its  welfare  as  you  who  are  now  at  its  head.  Your 
Primate  and  Chancellor  will  not  permit  these  studies 
to  be  meddled  with,  or  allow  fools  and  sluggards  to 
ridicule  them  from  the  pulpit.  The  Cardinal  of  York 
will  not  endure  it.  The  King's  Majesty  our  Sovereign 
has  himself  more  learning  than  any  English  monarch 
ever  possessed  before  him.  Think  you  that  he,  pru- 
dent and  pious  as  he  is,  will  look  on  passively  when 
worthless  blockheads  are  interrupting  the  course  of 
sound  instruction  in  the  oldest  university  in  the  Realm 
—  a  university  which  has  produced  men  who  have 
done  honour  to  their  country  and  the  Church  ?  With 
its  colleges  and  its  endowments,  there  is  nowhere  in 
the  world  a  place  of  education  so  richly  furnished  as 
Oxford ;  and  the  object  of  these  foundations  is  to  sup- 
port students  in  the  acquirement  of  knowledge.  Your 
Wisdoms,  therefore,  will  find  means  to  silence  these 
foolish  contentions.  Useful  learning,  of  whatever 
kind  it  be,  shall  be  protected  from  ridicule,  and  shall 
receive  proper  honour  and  esteem. 

Be  you  diligent  in  so  doing.  Improve  the  quality 
of  your  own  lectures,  and  so  deserve  the  thanks  of 
your  Prince,  of  your  Primate,  and  the  Cardinal. 
I  have  written  thus  out  of  the  regard  I  feel  for 
you.  My  own  services  you  know  that  you  can  com- 
mand if  you  need  them.  God  keep  you  all  in  safety, 
and  increase  you  daily  in  learning  and  godliness  of 
life. 


Lecture   VIII.  143 

The  heads  of  Houses  were  sleeping  over  a  volcano, 
and  required  a  sterner  wakening  than  a  letter  from 
Sir  Thomas  More.  Yet  the  rebuke  is  noteworthy, 
especially  from  the  quarter  from  which  it  came.  In 
a  score  of  years  their  Duns  Scotus  was  torn  to  pieces 
in  the  Quadrangles,  the  sacred  leaves  left  to  flutter  in 
the  November  winds,  they  themselves  erasing  with 
trembling  hands  the  Pope's  name  from  their  Service- 
books,  and  Sir  Thomas  More  laying  down  his  own 
life  to  stem  a  revolution  which  might  have  been  pre- 
vented had  they  listened  in  time  to  him  and  to  Eras- 
mus. This  letter  does  not  mention  Erasmus  by  name, 
though  there  is  an  evident  allusion  to  him.  The  next 
which  I  shall  read  is  a  passionate  and  indignant  de- 
fence of  Erasmus  himself,  against  some  vain  young 
English  divine,  who  had  written  to  More  to  remon- 
strate against  his  continued  intimacy  with  the  author 
of  "  Moria."  x  I  do  not  know  who  this  forward  young 
person  was.  There  were  perhaps  many  Englishmen 
in  the  universities  and  out  of  them  capable  of  similar 
folly.  More's  letter  is  very  long,  and  I  must  abridge 
and  condense  it.  The  satire  throughout  is  extremely 
fine. 

You  adjure  me  to  beware  of  Erasmus.  Gratitude 
for  your  concern  for  my  soul  obliges  me  to  thank  you 
for  your  alarms.  It  is  my  duty  also  to  point  out  to  you 
that  you  are  yourself  walking  among  precipices.  Your 
fortress,  from  whose  battlements  you  look  so  scornfully 
on  Erasmus,  may  be  less  secure  than  you  imagine. 

I  am  in  danger,  forsooth,  because  I  consider  Eras- 
mus (as  a  good  Greek  scholar)  to  have  given  a  better 
rendering  of  passages  in  the  New  Testament  than  I 
find  in  the  received  translation.  Where  is  the  dan- 
ger ?  May  not  I  find  pleasure  in  a  work  which  the 
learned  and  pious  admire,  and  which  the  Pope  him- 

1  Jortin,  vol.  ii.  appendix  xii. 


144  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

self  lias  twice  approved?  Erasmus  determines  no- 
thing. He  gives  the  facts  and  leaves  the  reader  to 
judge.  I  am  not  such  a  fool  as  to  mistake  the  false 
for  the  true,  and  the  danger  is  more  to  you  than  to 
me.  Erasmus  has  published  volumes  more  full  of 
wisdom  than  any  which  Europe  has  seen  for  ages. 
You  have  turned  to  poison  what  to  others  has  brought 
only  health.  I  read  with  real  sorrow  your  intemperate 
railing  at  such  a  man.  You  defame  his  character. 
You  call  him  a  vagabond  and  a  pseudo-theologian. 
You  say  he  is  a  heretic,  a  schismatic,  a  forerunner  of 
Antichrist. 

Before  you  were  a  priest  you  had  candour  and  char- 
ity ;  now  that  you  have  become  a  monk  some  devil 
has  possession  of  you.  You  say  you  do  not  give  him 
these  names  yourself.  You  pretend  that  he  is  so 
described  by  Almighty  God.  Are  you  not  ashamed 
to  bring  in  God  when  you  are  doing  the  devil's  work 
in  slandering  your  neighbour  ?  God  has  revealed  it, 
you  pretend,  to  someone  that  you  know.  I  am  not  to 
be  frightened  by  an  idiot's  dreams.  Your  "  someone 
that  you  know  "  declares  that  Erasmus  confessed  his 
unbelief  to  him  in  private,  and  you  say  that  your 
"  someone  "  is  a  man  of  eminence  and  virtue.  If  it  be 
the  man  I  suppose,  his  acquaintance  say  he  is  more 
honoured  than  honourable.  lie  has  told  you,  forsooth, 
that  Erasmus  has  more  than  once  secretly  admitted  to 
hi  in  that  he  was  an  unbeliever.  A  likely  story ! 
Erasmus,  when  he  was  in  England,  lived  with  Colet, 
the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, Mountjoy,  Tnnstall,  Pace,  and  Grocyn.  Did 
either  of  these  ever  hear  him  say  that  he  was  an  infi- 
del ?  They  loved  him,  and  loved  him  better  the  more 
they  knew  him.  You  answer  that  he  would  not  be- 
tray himself  to  such  men  as  they  are.  He  chose,  I 
ju-esume,  less  reputable  confidants  like  your  friend. 
Plow  is  "  someone  "  to  prove  his  accusation  ?  You  say 
it  was  in  secret.  There  were  no  witnesses.  When 
and  where  was  the  conversation  held  ?  Why  has  your 
friend  concealed  it  till  Erasmus  has   left   England? 


Lecture   VIII.  145 

Be  it  true  or  false,  this  gentleman  is  equally  a  traitor. 
But  what  Erasmus  has  done  for  Holy  Scripture  speaks 
for  him.  The  best  of  mankind  have  been  called  her- 
etics. 

To  proceed.  You  charge  Erasmus  with  having  said 
that  Jerome,  Ambrose,  Augustine,  and  other  Fathers 
made  occasional  mistakes.  Since  the  Fathers  admit 
it  themselves,  why  do  you  blame  Erasmus?  "When 
Augustine  translates  one  way  and  Jerome  another, 
they  cannot  both  be  right ;  when  Augustine  accepts 
the  story  of  the  Septuagint  and  the  seventy  cells,  and 
Jerome  treats  it  as  a  fable,  one  or  other  must  be 
wrong.  Augustine  says  angels  have  material  bodies. 
This  you  deny  yourself.  Augustine  says  infants 
dying  unbaptized  go  to  eternal  torments.  No  one 
now  believes  this. 

You  complain  of  the  study  of  Greek  and  Hebrew. 
You  say  it  leads  to  the  neglect  of  Latin.  "Was  not 
the  New  Testament  written  in  Greek?  Did  not  the 
early  Fathers  write  in  Greek?  Is  truth  only  to  be 
found  in  Gothic  Latin  ?  You  will  have  no  novelties ; 
you  say  the  "  old  is  better  "  ;  of  course  it  is ;  the  wis- 
dom of  the  Fathers  is  better  than  the  babbling  of  you 
moderns.  You  pretend  that  the  Gospels  can  be  un- 
derstood without  Greek ;  that  there  is  no  need  of 
a  new  translation  ;  we  have  the  Vulgate  and  others 
besides,  you  say,  and  a  new  version  was  superfluous. 
I  beseech  you,  where  are  these  others  ?  I  have  never 
met  a  man  who  has  seen  any  but  the  Vulgate.  Pro- 
duce them.  And  for  the  Vulgate  itself,  it  is  non- 
sense to  talk  of  the  many  ages  for  which  it  has  been 
approved  by  the  Church.  It  was  the  best  or  the  first 
which  the  Church  could  get.  When  once  in  use  it 
could  not  easily  be  changed,  but  to  use  it  is  not  to  ap- 
prove it  as  perfect.  You  talk  of  the  Septuagint  trans- 
lation, which  you  say  suffices  for  all  Scriptural  truth. 
Do  you  imagine  that  the  Seventy  wrote  in  Latin  ?  or 
wrote  a  Latin  version  of  the  New  Testament  ?  The 
Seventy  wrote  in  Greek,  and  were  all  dead  two  hun- 
dred years  before  Christ  was  born. 


146  Life  and  Letter?,  of  Erasmus. 

You  go  next  to  "  Moria."  Solomon  says,  of  the 
number  of  fools  there  is  no  end.  Moria  contains 
more  wisdom  and  less  folly  than  many  books  that  I 
know,  including-  your  own.  I  shall  not  defend  it.  It 
needs  no  defence.  I  notice  only  one  point  in  your 
attack.  You  say  that  in  "  Moria  "  Erasmus  makes 
himself  Moscus.  Who  was  Moscus  ?  Perhaps  you 
mean  Monms. 

As  to  the  "  Dialogue  of  Julius,"  who  wrote  it,  and 
whether  it  be  good  or  bad,  I  have  never  cared  to  in- 
quire. Opinions  differ ;  I  know  that  it  was  brought 
on  the  stage  in  Paris.  The  MS.  passed  through  the 
hands  of  Faustus  Anderlin,  who  was  a  friend  of  Eras- 
mus, and  Erasmus  may  have  seen  it  before  it  was 
printed ;  but  when  you  appeal  to  the  style,  there  were 
plenty  of  clever  men  in  Paris  who  could  have  imi- 
tated Erasmus's  manner.  But  suppose  he  did  write 
"Julius"  —  suppose  that  in  his  indignation  at  the 
broils  and  wars  which  that  Pope  had  caused  he  went 
further  than  he  could  have  afterwards  wished,  you 
will  have  small  thanks  from  those  who  smarted  under 
the  satire  by  identifying  it  now  with  Erasmus.  Proof 
you  have  none.  But  if  books  are  bad,  why  read 
them?  Time  was  when  monks  called  the  world  So- 
dom, and  read  nothing,  not  even  a  letter  from  a 
friend.  Now  it  appears  they  read  everything  —  her- 
esy, schism,  anything  that  offers,  to  find  material  for 
evil  speaking.  What  good  have  they  from  their 
prayers  when  they  learn  to  lie  and  slander  ?  I  knew 
you  once  an  innocent  and  affectionate  youth  —  why 
are  you  now  charged  with  spite  and  malice?  You 
complain  of  Erasmus's  satire  and  you  yourself  worry 
him  like  a  dog.  Take  all  the  hard  things  he  has  said 
of  anyone.  It  is  a  handful  of  dust  to  the  pyramid 
of  invective  which  you  have  piled  over  a  man  who 
was  once  kind  to  you.  Is  a  boy  like  you  to  fall  foul 
of  what  the  Vicar  of  Christ  approves  ?  Is  the  head 
of  the  Christian  Church,  speaking  from  the  citadel  of 
the  faith,  to  give  a  book  his  sanction,  and  is  it  to  be 
befouled    by  the    dirty   tongue  of   an    obscure   little 


Lecture  VIII.  147 

monk  ?  Erasmus,  forsooth,  does  not  know  Scripture  ! 
He  has  studied  Scripture  for  more  years  than  you 
have  been  alive.  You  yourself  quote  Scripture  like  a 
rogue  in  a  play.  Nothing'  is  easier,  nothing  is  viler. 
I  heard  a  fellow  the  other  day  telling  a  story  of  a 
priest  soliciting  another  man's  wife,  the  woman  refus- 
ing, the  husband  entering  and  chastising  him,  all  told 
in  Scripture  language.  Very  ridiculous,  no  doubt. 
To  use  Scripture  as  you  use  it  to  slander  your  neigh- 
bour is  a  great  deal  worse.  Erasmus  is  the  dearest 
friend  that  I  have. 

He  sneers,  you  exclaim,  at  the  religious  orders. 
Why  be  so  sensitive  ?  When  he  ridicules  your  cere- 
monies he  ridicules  only  the  superstitious  use  of  them. 
Do  not  your  orders  quarrel  and  abuse  each  other,  and 
fight  over  the  cut  and  colour  of  their  petticoats,  and 
set  up  their  crests  as  if  they  were  seated  on  the  sun's 
rays  ?  Yet  the  same  men  who  think  the  devil  will 
have  them  if  they  change  the  shape  of  their  frocks, 
are  not  afraid  to  intrigue  and  lie.  They  shudder  if 
they  have  left  out  a  verse  in  a  Psalm,  and  they  tell 
each  other  dirty  stories  longer  than  their  prayers. 
They  strain  at  a  gnat;  they  swallow  an  entire  ele- 
phant. They  live  in  the  third  heaven,  as  if  they 
were  saints  in  council.  They  fancy  themselves  the 
holiest  of  men  and  commit  the  most  abominable 
crimes.  I  knew  a  man  belonging  to  a  strict  order 
—  not  a  novice;  he  was  prior  of  the  house.  He 
had  cone  from  wickedness  to  wickedness.  He  had 
planned  murder  and  sacrilege,  and  he  hired  a  party 
of  cutthroats.  The  deed  was  done.  The  men  were 
caught.  I  saw  them.  They  told  me  themselves  that 
before  they  went  to  work  the  prior  took  them  to  his 
cell  and  made  them  pray  on  their  knees  to  the  Virgin 
I  lure.  This  completed,  they  did  their  business  with 
a  clear  conscience. 

I  am  not  holding  good  men  answerable  for  others' 
sins.  Wholesome  plants  and  poisonous  plants  may 
grow  on  the  same  stem.  The  worship  of  the  Virgin 
may  do  good  to  some  people.     With  others  it  is  made 


148  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 


an  encouragement  to  crime.  This  is  what  Erasmus 
denounces,  and  if  you  blame  him  you  must  blame 
Jerome,  who  says  worse  of  monies  than  Erasmus  says. 
Flattery  makes  friends  and  truth  makes  enemies. 
Erasmus  has  written  truth,  and  you  curse  and  insult 
him.  You  say,  like  the  Pharisee,  "  God,  I  thank 
Thee  that  I  am  not  as  this  publican."  Erasmus  needs 
no  eulogium  from  me.  His  work  speaks  for  him,  and 
the  world's  honour.  You  say  he  has  been  vicious. 
What  leisure  has  he  had  for  vice  ?  You  call  him  a 
vagabond  because  he  has  moved  from  place  to  place 
to  carry  on  his  work.  A  saint,  I  suppose,  must  re- 
main fixed  like  a  sponge  or  an  oyster.  You  forget 
your  own  mendicants.  They  wander  wide  enough, 
and  you  think  them  the  holiest  of  mankind.  Jerome 
travelled  far,  the  Apostles  travelled  far. 

Look  into  your  own  heart.  You,  forsooth,  are 
never  angry,  never  puffed  up,  never  seek  your  own 
glory.  My  friend,  the  more  conscious  you  are  of 
your  own  faults,  the  more  likely  you  are  to  be  a  pro- 
fitable servant.  This  I  pray  you  may  be  your  care, 
and  mine,  and  Erasmus's  also.  When  we  have  done 
our  best  it  will  be  nothing,  and  we  shall  do  our  best 
when  we  least  detract  from  others'  merits.  Your  ad- 
mirers pretend  that  they  have  been  induced  by  your 
heavenly  arguments  to  abandon  their  friendship  for 
Erasmus.  How  they  have  been  affected  I  cannot  say. 
For  myself,  I  am  not  so  dazzled  but  that  I  can  still 
see  that  white  is  white. 

You  hint  at  the  end  that  you  are  not  yourself  im- 
placable :  if  Erasmus  will  correct  his  errors  you  will 
again  take  his  hand.  Doubtless  he  will  bow  to  so 
great  a  man,  and  will  correct  them  when  you  point 
them  out.  So  far  you  have  only  exposed  your  own. 
In  what  you  call  errors  he  has  substituted  pure  Latin 
for  bad,  cleared  obscurities,  corrected  mistakes,  and 
has  pointed  out  blunders  of  copyists.  To  please  so 
great  a  man  as  you  he  may  perhaps  undo  all  this,  for- 
feit the  respect  of  the  wise,  and  console  himself  with 
the  sense  of  your  forgiveness. 


Lecture    VIII.  149 

But  a  truce  to  satire.  You  say  that  the  Mots  you 
indicate  are  trifles.  Well,  you  cannot  regard  heresy 
and  schism  and  preeursing  Antichrist  as  trifles. 
I  presume,  therefore,  that  these  charges  are  with- 
drawn. I  will  let  the  rest  drop,  and  our  tragedy  may 
end  as  a  comedy.  Farewell !  If  the  cloister  is  good 
for  your  soul  make  the  best  of  it,  but  spare  us  for  the 
future  these  effervescences  of  genius. 


APPENDIX  TO  LECTURE  VIII. 


JULIUS  II.   EXCLUSUS.    A  DIALOGUE. 

Brought  on  the  Stage  at  Paris,  1514. 

Persons.  —  Julius  II. ;  Familiar  Spirit  ;  St.  Peter. 

Scene.  —  Gate  of  Heaven. 

Julius.  What  the  devil  is  this  ?  The  gates  not  opened  ! 
Something  is  wrong  with  the  lock. 

Spirit.  You  have  brought  the  wrong  key  perhaps.  The  key  of 
your  money-box  will  not  open  the  door  here.  You  should  have 
brought  both  keys.     This  is  the  key  of  power,  not  of  knowledge. 

Julius.  I  never  had  any  but  this,  and  I  don't  see  the  use  of 
another.     Hey  there,  porter  !     I  say,  are  you  asleep  or  drunk  ? 

Peter.  Well  that  the  gates  are  adamant,  or  this  fellow  would 
have  broken  in.  He  must  be  some  giant,  or  conqueror.  Heaven, 
what  a  stench  !     Who  are  you  ?     What  do  you  want  here  ? 

Julius.  Open  the  gates,  I  say.  Why  is  there  no  one  to  receive 
me? 

Peter.  Here  is  fine  talk.     Who  are  you,  I  say  ? 

Julius.  You  know  this  key,  I  suppose,  and  the  triple  crown, 
and  the  pallium  ? 

Peter.  I  see  a  key,  but  not  the  key  which  Christ  gave  to  me  a 
long  time  since.  The  crown  ?  I  don't  recognise  the  crown.  No 
heathen  king  ever  wore  such  a  thing,  certainly  none  who  ex- 
pected to  be  let  in  here.     The  pallium  is  strange  too.     And  see, 


150  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

there  are  marks  on  all  three  of  that  rogue  and  impostor  Simon 
Magus,  that  1  turned  out  of  office. 

Julius.  Enough  of  this.  I  am  Julius  the  Legurian,  P.  M.,  as 
you  can  see  by  the  letters  if  you  can  read. 

PeU  r.  P.  M. !  What  is  that  ?     Pcstis  Maxima  ? 

Julius.  Pontifex  Maximus,  you  rascal. 

Peter.  If  you  are  three  times  Maximus,  if  you  are  Mercury 
Trismegistus,  you  can't  come  in  unless  you  are  Optimus  too. 

Julius.  Impertinence  !  You,  who  have  been  no  more  than 
Sanctus  all  these  ages — and  I  Sanctissimus,  Sanctissimus  Dom- 
inus,  Sauctitas,  Holiness  itself,  with  Bulls  to  show  it. 

Peter.  Is  there  no  difference  between  being  Holy  and  being 
culled  Holy  ?  Ask  your  flatterers  who  called  you  these  fine 
names  to  give  you  admittance.  Let  me  look  at  you  a  little  closer. 
Hum  !  Signs  of  impiety  in  plenty,  and  none  of  the  other  thing. 
Who  arc  these  fellows  behind  you  ?  Faugh  !  They  smell  of  stews, 
drink-shops,  and  gunpowder.  Have  you  brought  goblins  out  of 
Tartarus  to  make  war  with  heaven?  Yourself,  too,  are  not 
precisely  like  an  apostle.  Priest's  cassock  and  bloody  armour 
below  it,  eyes  savage,  mouth  insolent,  forehead  brazen,  body 
scarred  with  sins  all  over,  breath  loaded  with  wine,  health 
broken  with  debauchery.  Ay,  threaten  as  you  will,  I  will  tell 
you  what  you  are  for  all  your  bold  looks.  You  are  Julius  the 
Emperor  come  back  from  hell. 

Julius.  Ma  desi  ! 

Peter.  What  docs  he  say  ? 

Spirit.  They  are  words  which  he  uses  to  make  the  cardinals 
fly  after  lie  has  dined. 

Peter.  You  seem  to  understand  him  ;  who  are  you  ? 

Spirit.  1  am  the  genius  of  this  man. 

Peter.  No  good  one,  I  fear. 

Julius.  Will  you  make  an  end  of  your  talking  and  open  the 
gates  ?  We  will  break  them  down  else.  You  see  these  followers 
of  mine. 

Peter.  I  see  a  lot  of  precious  rogues,  but  they  won't  break  in 
here. 

Julius.  Make  an  end,  I  say,  or  I  will  fling  a  thunderbolt  at 
you.  1  will  excommunicate  you.  I  have  done  as  much  to  kings 
before  this.     Here  are  the  Bulls  ready. 

Peter.  Thunderbolts!  Bulls!  I  beseech  you,  we  had  no 
thunderbolts  or  Bulls  from  Christ. 

Julius.  You  shall  feel  them  if  you  don't  behave  yourself. 


Lecture   VIII.  151 

Peter.  Do  your  worst.      Curses  won't  serve  your  turn  here. 
Excommunicate  me  !     By  what  right,  I  would  know  ? 

Julius.  The  best  of  rights.      You  are  only  a  priest,  perhaps 
not  that  —  you  cannot  consecrate.     Open,  I  say. 

Peter.  You  must  show  your  merits  first ;  no  admission  without 
merits. 

Julius.  What  do  you  mean  by  merits  ? 

Peter.  Have  you  taught  true  doctrine  ? 

Julius.  Not  I.      I    have  been  too  busy  fighting.      There  are 
monks  to  look  after  doctrine,  if  that  is  of  any  consequence. 

Peter.  Have  you  gained  souls  to  Christ  by  pious  example  ? 

Julius.  I  have  sent  a  good  many  to  Tartarus. 

Peter.  Have  you  worked  any  miracles  ? 

Julius.  Pshaw  !  miracles  are  out  of  date. 

Peter.  Have  you  been  diligent  in  your  prayers  ? 

Spirit.  You  waste  your  breath.     This  is  mockery. 

Peter.  These  are  the  qualities  which  make  a  respectable  pope. 
If  he  has  others  better,  let  him  produce  them. 

Julius.  The  invincible  Julius  ought  not  to  answer  a  beggarly 
fisherman.  However,  you  shall  know  who  and  what  I  am. 
First,  I  am  a  Ligurian,  and  not  a  Jew  like  you.  My  mother  was 
the  sister  of  the  great  Pope  Sextus  IV.  The  Pope  made  me  a 
rich  man  out  of  Church  property.  I  became  a  cardinal.  I  had 
my  misfortunes.  I  had  the  French  pox.  I  was  banished,  hunted 
out  of  my  country  ;  but  I  knew  all  along  that  I  should  come  to 
be  pope  myself  in  the  end.  You  were  frightened  at  a  girl's 
voice.  A  gipsy  girl  heartened  me,  and  told  me  I  should  wear  a 
crown  and  be  king  of  kings  and  lord  of  lords.  It  came  true, 
partly  with  French  help,  partly  with  money  which  I  borrowed  at 
interest,  partly  with  promises.  Croesus  could  not  have  produced 
all  the  money  that  was  wanted.  The  bankers  will  tell  you  about 
that.  But  I  succeeded.  I  rose  to  the  top,  and  I  have  done 
more  for  the  Church  and  Christ  than  any  pope  before  me. 
Peter.  What  did  you  do  ? 

Julius.  I  raised  the  revenue.  I  invented  new  offices  and  sold 
them.  I  invented  a  way  to  sell  bishoprics  without  simony. 
When  a  man  is  made  a  bishop  he  resigns  the  offices  which  he 
holds  already.  He  cannot  resign  what  he  has  not  got,  so  I  made 
him  buy  something  first,  and  in  this  way  each  promotion  brought 
me  in  six  or  seven  thousand  ducats,  besides  the  Bulls.  I  re- 
coined  the  currency  and  made  a  great  sum  that  way.  Nothing 
can  be  done  without  money.      Then  I  annexed  Bologna  to  the 


L52  Life  mid  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

IIolv  See.  I  heal  (lie  Venetians.  I  jockeyed  the  Duke  of 
Ferrara.  1  defeated  a  schismatical  council  by  a  sham  council  of 
my  own.  1  drove  the  French  out  of  Italy,  and  I  would  have 
driven  out  the  Spaniards,  too,  if  the  Fates  had  not  brought  me 
here.  1  have  set  all  the  princes  of  Europe  by  the  ears.  I  have 
torn  up  treaties,  kept  great  armies  in  the  field.  I  have  covered 
Rome  with  palaces,  and  I  have  left  five  millions  in  the  Treasury 
behind  me.  1  would  have  done  more  if  my  Jew  doctor  could 
have  kept  me  alive,  and  I  would  give  something  if  an  enchanter 
could  put  me  back  so  that  I  could  finish  my  work.  And  here 
are  you  keeping  the  door  shut  against  one  who  has  deserved  so 
well  of  Christ  and  the  Church.  And  I  have  done  it  all  myself, 
too.  f  owe  nothing  to  my  birth,  for  I  don't  know  who  my  father 
was  ;  nothing  to  learning,  for  I  have  none  ;  nothing  to  youth,  for 
I  was  old  when  I  began  ;  nothing  to  popularity,  for  I  was  hated 
all  round.  Spite  of  fortune,  spite  of  gods  and  men,  I  achieved 
all  that  I  have  told  you  in  a  few  years,  and  I  left  work  enough 
cut  out  for  my  successors  to  last  ten  years  longer.  This  is  the 
modest  truth,  and  my  friends  at  Home  call  me  more  a  god  than 
a  man. 

Peter,  [nvincible  warrior!  All  this  is  quite  new  to  me. 
Pardon  my  simplicity,  who  are  these  fair  curly-haired  boys  that 
j  ..a  have  with  you  ? 

Julius.  Boys  I  took  into  training  to  improve  their  minds. 

Peter.  And  those  dark  ones  with  the  scars? 

Julius.  Those  are  my  soldiers  and  generals  who  were  killed 
fio'ht'mc  for  me.  They  all  deserve  heaven.  I  promised  it  them 
under  hand  and  seal  if  they  lost  their  lives  in  my  service,  no 
matter  how  wicked  they  might  be. 

Peter.  Doubtless  they  are  the  same  parties  who  came  a  while 
ago  with  these  Bulls  of  yours,  and  tried  to  force  their  way  in. 

Julius.  And  you  did  not  admit  them  ? 

Peter.  Not  I.  My  orders  are  not  to  admit  men  who  come  with 
Bulls,  but  to  admit  those  who  have  clothed  the  naked,  fed  the 
hungry,  given  the  thirsty  drink,  visited  the  sick  and  those  in 
prison.  Men  have  cast  out  devils  and  worked  miracles  in  Christ's 
name  and  yet  have  been  shut  out.  Do  you  think  we  open  for 
Bulls  signed  "Julius"? 

Julius.  If  I  had  but  known. 

Peter.  What  would  you  have  done  ?     Declared  war? 

Julius.  I  would  have  excommunicated  you. 

Peter.  Nonsense.  Proceed  with  your  story.  Why  do  you 
wear  arms  ? 


Lecture    VIII.  153 

Julius.  Don't  you  know  the  Pope  has  two  swords  ? 

Peter.  When  I  was  in  your  place  I  had  no  sword  but  the  sword 
of  the  Spirit. 

Julius.  Yes,  you  had.     Recollect  Malchus. 

Peter.  I  do  recollect,  but  I  was  theu  defending  my  Master, 
not  myself.  I  was  not  then  pope.  I  had  not  received  the  keys, 
nor  the  Holy  Spirit  either.  Even  so,  my  Master  ordered  me  to 
sheathe  my  sword,  to  show  that  such  weapons  did  not  become 
Christian  priests.  Why  do  you  call  yourself  Ligurian  ?  Does  it 
matter  to  Christ's  Vicar  from  what  family  he  comes  ? 

Julius.  I  wish  to  do  credit  to  my  country. 

Peter.  You  know  your  country,  it  seems,  though  you  don't 
know  your  father.  I  thought  you  were  going  to  speak  of  your 
heavenly  country,  the  New  Jerusalem.  But,  to  go  on.  You  say 
you  are  sister's  son  to  Sextus — Sextns's  nephew. 

Julius.  I  call  myself  his  nephew.  Some  people  have  said  I 
was  his  son. 

Peter.  Is  that  true  ? 

Julius.  It  is  disrespectful  to  the  Pope's  dignity  to  say  so. 

Peter.  The  popes  would  consult  better  for  their  dignity  by 
giving  no  occasion  for  such  stories.  But  you  have  told  us  how 
you  yourself  became  Supreme  Pontiff.  Is  that  the  road  gene- 
rally followed  ? 

Julius.  There  has  been  no  other  for  several  generations.  It 
may  be  different  in  future.  I  myself  issued  a  prohibition  against 
further  elections  like  my  own.  But  others  must  look  to  these 
things  now. 

Peter.  No  one  could  have  given  a  more  complete  description. 
I  am  surprised  that  such  an  office  is  so  sought  after.  When  I 
was  pope  the  difficulty  was  to  find  men  who  would  be  priests  or 
deacons. 

Julius.  Naturally,  when  bishops  and  priests  had  nothing  for 
their  reward  but  fasts,  and  vigils,  and  doctrines,  and  now  and 
then  death.  Bishops  nowadays  are  kings  and  lords,  and  such 
positions  are  worth  struggling  for. 

Peter.  Tell  me,  had  Bologna  fallen  from  the  faith  that  you 
annexed  it  to  the  Holy  See  ? 

Julius.  God  forbid  !     Not  a  heretic  in  the  whole  place. 

Peter.  Bentivoglio  perhaps  was  a  bad  ruler  and  the  State  was 
in  disorder  ? 

Julius.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  flourishing  in  the  highest  de- 
gree.    That  was  why  I  wanted  to  have  it. 


154  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Peter.  I  understand.  Bentivoglio  was  a  usurper,  and  had  no 
right  to  be  there. 

Julius.  Not  at  all.  Be  had  succeeded  to  the  Government  by 
forma]  arrangement. 

Peter.  Then  the  people  did  not  like  him  ? 

Julius.  They  loved  him,  clung-  to  him.     They  hated  me. 

Peter.  Why  did  you  take  Bologna  then  ? 

Julius.  Because  I  wanted  the  revenue  for  my  own  treasury, 
and  because  Bologna  was  otherwise  convenient  for  me.  So  I 
used  my  thunderbolts,  the  French  helped  me,  and  now  Bologna 
is  mine,  and  every  farthing  of  the  taxes  goes  to  Rome  for  the 
Church's  use.  If  you  had  only  seeu  my  triumphal  entry.  The 
Church  was  militant  with  a  witness. 

Peter.  So  you  turned  our  petition  to  God,  that  His  Kingdom 
may  come,  into  real  fact.  .  .  .  Well,  and  what  had  the  Venetians 
done  to  yon  ? 

Julius.  They  told  scandalous  stories  about  me. 

/ '.  ter.  True  or  false  ? 

Julius.  No  matter  which.  To  speak  ill  of  the  Pope  is  sacri- 
lege. Then  they  appointed  their  own  bishops  and  priests. 
They  allowed  no  appeals  to  Rome  and  refused  to  buy  our  dis- 
pensations.    They  kept  back  part  of  your  patrimony. 

Peter.  My  patrimony  !  What  patrimony  do  you  mean  ?  I 
left  all  to  follow  Christ. 

Julius.  They  occupied  certain  towns  which  the  Holy  See 
claimed. 

Peter.  This  was  the  injury,  then!  Well,  was  there  impiety 
or  immorality  in  Venice? 

Julius.  Not  the  least,  but  I  wanted  a  few  thousand  ducats  of 
them  to  pay  my  regiments. 

Peter.  And  how  about  the  Duke  of  Ferrara? 

Julius.  The  Duke  was  an  ungrateful  wretch.  He  accused  me 
of  simony,  called  me  a  paederast,  and  also  claimed  certain  mon- 
eys of  me.  Moreover,  I  wanted  the  Duchy  of  Ferrara  for  a  son 
of  my  own,  who  could  be  depended  on  to  be  true  to  the  Church, 
and  who  had  just  poniarded  the  Cardinal  of  Pavia. 

Peter.  What !     What !     Popes  with  wives  and  children  ? 

Julius.   Wives  !     No,  not  wives  ;  but  why  not  children? 

Peter.  You  spoke  of  a  schisniatical  council.     Explain. 

Julius.  It  is  a  long  story,  but  the  fact  was  this.  Certain  per- 
sons had  been  complaining  that  the  Court  of  Rome  was  a  nest 
of  abominations.     They  charged  me  myself  with  simony.     They 


Lecture   VIII.  155 

said  I  was  a  sot,  a  whoremaster,  a  son  of  this  world,  a  scandal 
to  the  Christian  faith.  Thiugs  had  become  so  had  that  a  coun- 
cil must  he  held  to  mend  them  ;  and,  in  fact,  they  alleged  that 
I  had  sworn  at  my  instalment  to  call  a  council  in  two  years,  and 
that  I  had  been  elected  on  that  condition. 

Peter.  Was  it  so  ? 

Julius.  Why,  yes  it  was  ;  but  I  absolved  myself,  and  now 
mark  what  followed.  Nine  of  my  cardinals  revolt.  They  re- 
quire me  to  keep  my  word.  I  refuse.  They  appeal  to  the  Em- 
peror, and  backed  by  the  Emperor  and  the  French  king  they 
call  a  council  themselves,  thus  rending  the  seamless  vesture  of 
Christ. 

Peter.  But  were  you  guilty  of  the  crimes  of  which  they  ac- 
cused you  ? 

Julius.  That  is  nothing  to  the  purpose.  I  was  Poiitifex  Max- 
imus,  and  if  I  was  fouler  than  Lerna  itself,  so  long  as  I  hold  the 
keys  I  am  Christ's  Vicar,  and  must  be  treated  as  such. 

Peter.  What,  if  you  are  a  notorious  scoundrel  ? 

Julius.  As  notorious  as  you  please.  He  who  is  in  God's  place 
on  earth  is  quasi-God  himself,  and  is  not  to  be  challenged  by 
any  little  bit  of  a  manikin. 

Peter.  But  we  cannot  respect  a  man  whom  we  know  to  be 
worthless. 

Julius.  Thought  is  free,  but  speak  reverently  of  the  Pope  you 
must.    The  Pope  may  not  be  censured  even  by  a  general  council. 

Peter.  He  who  represents  Christ  ought  to  try  to  be  like  Christ. 
But,  tell  me,  is  there  no  way  of  removing  a  wicked  pope  ? 

Julius.  Absurd  !  Who  can  remove  the  highest  authority  of 
all? 

Peter.  That  the  Pope  is  the  highest  is  a  reason  why  he  should 
be  removed  if  he  causes  scandal.  Bad  princes  can  be  removed. 
The  Church  is  in  a  bad  way  if  it  must  put  up  with  a  head  who  is 
ruining  it. 

Julius.  A  Pope  can  only  be  corrected  by  a  general  council, 
but  no  general  council  can  be  held  without  the  Pope's  consent ; 
otherwise  it  is  a  synod,  and  not  a  council.  Let  the  council  sit,  it 
can  determine  nothing  unless  the  Pope  agrees  ;  and,  again,  a  sin- 
gle pope  having  absolute  power  is  superior  to  the  council.  Thus 
he  cannot  be  deposed  for  any  crime  whatsoever. 

Peter.  What,  not  for  murder  ? 

Julius.  No,  not  if  it  be  parricide. 

Peter.  Not  for  fornication  ? 


L56  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Julius.  No!  Eor  incest. 
Peter.  Nol  for  simony  ? 

Julius.   N'ot  for  six  hundred  acts  of  simony. 

Peter.  Not  for  poisoning  ? 

Julius.  No,  nor  for  sacrilege. 

/',/</•.    Not  for  blasphemy  ? 

Julius.  No,  I  say. 

/',/,/■.  Not  for  all  these  crimes  collected  in  a  single  person? 

Julius.  Add  six  hundred  more  to  them,  there  is  no  power 
which  can  depose  the  Pope  of  Home. 

Peter.  A  novel  privilege  for  my  successors  —  to  be  the  wick- 
edest of  men,  yet  be  safe  from  punishment.  So  much  the  uu- 
liappier  the  Church  which  cannot  shake  such  a  monster  off  its 
shoulders. 

Julius.  Some  say  there  is  one  cause  for  which  a  Pope  can  be 
deposed. 

Peter.  When  he  has  done  a  good  action,  I  suppose,  since  he  is 
not  to  be  punished  for  his  bad  actions. 

Julius.  If  he  can  be  convicted  publicly  of  heresy.  But  this 
is  impossible,  too.  For  he  can  cancel  any  canon  which  he  does 
not  like,  and  should  such  a  charge  be  preferred  in  a  council  be 
can  always  recant.     There  are  a  thousand  loopholes. 

Peter.  In  the  name  of  the  papal  majesty,  who  made  these  fine 
laws  ? 

Julius.  Who?  Why,  the  source  of  all  law,  the  Pope  himself, 
and  the  power  that  makes  a  law  can  repeal  it. 

Peter.  Fortunate  Pope,  who  can  cheat  Christ  with  his  laws. 
Quite  true,  the  remedy  in  such  a  case  is  not  in  a  council.  The 
people  ought  to  rise  with  paving  stones  and  dash  such  a  wretch's 
brains  out.     But,  tell  me,  why  do  popes  hate  general  councils? 

Julius.  Why  do  kings  hate  senates  and  parliaments  ?  Coun- 
cils are  apt  to  throw  the  majesty  of  popes  into  the  shade.  There 
will  be  able  men  upon  them,  men  with  a  conscience  who  will 
speak  their  minds,  men  who  envy  us  and  would  like  our  power 
to  be  cut  down.  Scarce  a  council  ever  met  which  did  not  leave 
the  Pope  weaker  than  it  found  him.  You  experienced  it  your- 
self when  James  pulled  you  up,  and  there  are  some  who  think 
to  this  day  that  the  primacy  was  in  James  and  not  in  you. 

Peter.  Then  you  think  the  first  object  to  be  considered  is  not 
the  welfare  of  the  Church,  but  the  supremacy  of  the  Pope  ? 

Julius.  Everyone  for  himself.  The  Pope's  interest  is  my 
interest. 


Lecture   VIII.  157 

Peter.  If  Christ  had  thought  of  His  interest  there  would  have 
been  no  Church  for  you  to  he  supreme  over.  Why  should 
Christ's  Vicar  be  so  unlike  Him  ?  But  tell  me  how  you  broke 
up  the  schismatic  council  that  you  spoke  of. 

Julius.  You  shall  hear.  I  first  worked  on  Maximilian,  and 
persuaded  him  to  withdraw  his  support  from  France.  I  then 
forced  the  cardinals  to  deny  their  own  oaths  before  witnesses. 

Peter.  Was  that  right '? 

Julius.  Why  not  right,  if  the  Pope  wills  it  ?  An  oath  is  not 
an  oath  if  the  Pope  chooses.  He  can  absolve  when  he  pleases. 
It  was  a  little  impudent,  but  it  was  the  most  convenient  way. 
Then,  as  I  did  not  want  to  seem  to  be  evading  the  council, 
I  contrived  that  I  shoidd  be  myself  invited  to  preside  over  it.  I 
appealed  to  a  council  myself.  I  merely  said  that  the  time 
and  place  which  had  been  chosen  were  unsuitable,  and  I  invited 
the  bishops  to  meet  at  Rome.  I  meant  none  to  attend  but  my 
own  friends  who  would  support  me.  I  instructed  them  what  to 
do,  and  I  created  a  batch  of  new  cardinals  who  I  knew  were 
devoted  to  me. 

Spirit.  That  is,  the  greatest  rascals. 

Julius.  I  did  not  want  a  crowd  of  abbots  and  bishops.  There 
might  have  been  honest  men  among  them,  so  I  bade  them  spare 
expense  and  send  up  one  or  two  only  from  each  province.  Even 
so  it  seemed  there  would  be  too  many  ;  so,  as  they  were  prepar- 
ing to  start,  I  sent  them  word  that  the  council  was  prorogued, 
and  that  they  need  not  come.  Then  I  reverted  to  my  original 
day,  with  Rome  for  the  meeting-place.  None  would  be  there 
save  those  whom  I  had  prepared,  and  if  any  should  by  chance  be 
among  them  who  would  not  go  along  with  me,  I  had  no  fear 
that,  protected  as  I  was,  they  would  venture  extremities.  This 
being  settled,  I  appealed  against  the  French  rival  council.  I  set 
out  briefs  in  which  I  called  my  council  sacrosanct,  and  their 
schismatic  one  a  synagogue  of  Satan. 

Peter.  Were  the  opposition  cardinals  bad  men  ? 
Julius.  I  know  no  harm  of  their  morals.  The  Cardinal  of 
Rouen,  who  was  the  head  of  the  business,  was  a  sanctimonious 
fellow,  always  crying  for  Church  reform.  He  did  reform  cer- 
tain things  in  his  own  province.  Any  way,  death  relieved  me  of 
him,  and  glad  I  was  of  it.  Another  of  them,  the  Cardinal  of  St. 
Cross,  a  Spaniard,  was  also  a  good  sort  of  man,  but  he  was  rigid, 
austere,  and  given  to  theology,  a  class  of  man  always  unfriendly 
to  the  popes. 


158  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Peter.  Being  a  theologian,  I  presume  lie  could  defend  the 
course  which  he  was  pursuing. 

Julius.  Of  course  he  could,  and  did.  He  said  the  Church  had 
aevei  been  so  disordered,  and  a  council  must  be  held  ;  that  I 
had  myself  sworn  at  my  admission  that  there  should  he  a  council 
in  two  years  ;  that  I  could  not  be  released  from  my  oath  without 
the  cardinals'  consent  ;  that  I  had  been  again  and  again  re- 
minded of  my  promise  ;  that  the  princes  had  remonstrated  with 
me  ;  that  all  the  world  maintained  that  there  would  be  no  coun- 
cil while  Julius  lived  ;  that  if  I  persisted,  the  College  of  Car- 
dinals might  call  a  council,  or  even  the  Emperor,  the  French 
king,  and  the  other  princes  might  call  it. 

Peter.   Did  they  propose  violent  measures  against  yourself  ? 

Julius.  Indeed,  they  were  far  too  respectful  to  me,  more  so 
than  I  wished.  They  only  entreated  me  to  remember  my  oath, 
preside  over  their  council,  aud  help  them  to  put  the  Church  in 
order.  This  moderation  of  theirs  brought  much  odium  on  me. 
They  were  learned  men  besides,  men  who  fasted  and  prayed 
and  lived  within  compass,  with  a  reputation  for  holiness.  This 
also  was  much  against  me. 

Peter.  What  pretext  did  you  give  for  calling  your  council  in 
opposition  to  theirs  ? 

Julius.  The  best  possible.  I  said  I  meant  to  begin  the  re- 
form with  the  head  of  the  Church — that  is,  with  myself  ;  then 
to  go  to  the  princes,  and  then  to  the  lower  orders. 

Peter.  That  is  amusing.  Well,  what  next  ?  What  decision 
did  the  synagogue  of  Satan  arrive  at  ? 

Julius.  Decisions  which  were  horrible,  not  fit  to  be  mentioned. 

Peter.  So  bad  as  that  ? 

Julius.  Impious,  sacrilegious,  worse  thau  heretical.  If  I  had 
not  fought  tooth  and  nail  the  Church  would  have  been  ruined. 

Peter.  Explain  more  literally. 

Julius.  I  cannot  speak  of  it  without  a  shudder.  They  wanted 
to  reduce  me,  the  cardinals,  the  Court  of  Rome  to  the  level  of 
the  Apostles.  Bishops  were  to  cut  down  their  expenses  and 
have  fewer  servants  aud  horses.  Cardinals  were  not  to  absorb 
bishops'  sees  and  abbeys.  No  bishop  to  have  more  sees  than 
one,  and  to  be  content  with  incomes  which  would  not  support 
a  parish  priest.  Popes  and  bishops  were  to  be  only  appointed 
for  merit.  Wicked  popes  were  to  be  deposed.  Bishops  given 
to  drink  or  fornication  were  to  be  suspended,  felonious  priests 
to  forfeit  their  benefices  and  lose  life  or  limb,  with  much  more 


Lecture   VIII.  159 

to  the  same  purpose.  Our  wealth  and  power  was  to  be  taken 
from  us,  and  we  were  to  he  made  into  saints. 

Peter.  And  what  said  your  sacrosanct  council  at  Rome  to  all 
this? 

Julius.  I  told  it  what  it  was  to  say.  Our  first  meeting  was 
formal.  We  had  two  masses,  of  the  Holy  Cross  and  the  Holy 
Ghost,  to  show  that  we  were  acting  under  Divine  inspiration, 
and  then  there  was  a  speech  in  honour  of  myself.  At  the  next 
session  I  cursed  the  schismatic  cardinals.  At  the  third  I  laid 
France  under  an  interdict  to  exasperate  the  people  against  the 
King.  The  Acts  were  then  drafted  into  Bulls  and  sent  round 
Europe. 

Peter.  And  that  was  all  ? 

Julius.  It  was  all  I  wanted.  I  had  won.  I  deprived  the 
cardinals  who  remained  obstinate,  and  gave  their  hats  to  others. 
I  delivered  them  to  Satan.  If  I  coidd  have  caught  them  I 
would  have  delivered  them  to  the  flames. 

Peter.  But  according  to  you  the  acts  of  the  schismatic  council 
were  better  than  yours.  Your  sacrosanct  council  only  cursed. 
So  it  seems  that  Satan  came  nearer  to  Christ  than  the  spirit 
which  was  in  you. 

Julius.  Mind  your  words.  My  Bulls  strike  everyone  who 
supports  the  schismatics. 

Peter.  You  precious  rascal !     How  did  it  all  end  ? 

Julius.  I  left  things  in  the  state  I  tell  you.  Fate  will  decide 
the  rest. 

Peter.  So  there  is  a  schism  still  ? 

Julius.  Yes,  and  a  bad  one. 

Peter.  And  you,  who  were  Christ's  Vicar,  preferred  a  schism 
to  a  genuine  council  ? 

Julius.  Better  three  hundred  schisms  than  be  called  myself  to 
account. 

Peter.  Are  you  so  much  afraid  ?     Which  side  will  win  ? 

Julius.  Our  side  has  most  money.  France  is  exhausted,  and 
England  lias  mountains  of  gold  which  have  not  yet  been  touched. 
I  can  only  prophesy  one  thing.  If  France  gets  the  best,  which 
I  don't  like  to  think,  there  will  be  a  shift  of  names.  My  sacro- 
sanct council  will  be  Satan's  synod,  and  I  not  Pope,  but  a 
shadow.  They  will  have  had  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  I  the  devil. 
But  I  left  so  much  treasure  behind  me  that  I  don't  think  it  will 
come  to  this. 

Peter.  I  don't   understand   about   the   French.     The  king  of 


1G0  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

France  is  eaUed  Most  Christian.  You  say  tho  French  helped 
your  flection,  helped  you  to  take  Bologna,  and  beat  the  invin- 
cible Venetians.     How  came  your  alliance  to  be  broken? 

Julius.  It  is  a  long  story.  I  did  n't  change  ;  I  did  what  I 
meant  to  do  all  along.  1  never  liked  the  French  ;  they  are  bar- 
barians, and  no  Italian  likes  barbarians.  I  used  the  French  as 
long  as  I  wanted  them.  I  dissembled,  lied,  and  put  up  with 
much.  But  things  fell  at  last  into  the  position  I  desired.  I 
could  then  show  my  colours  and  drive  them  out. 

Peter.  What  do  you  mean  by  barbarians?  Are  the  French 
Christians  ? 

Julius.  Oh,  Christians,  yes,  if  that  matters. 
Peter.   Peasants,  I  presume  —  illiterate  Christians? 
Julius.  They  are  literate  enough,  and  richer  than  we  like. 
Peter.  "Why  do  you  call  them  barbarians,  then  ?     Explain. 
Spirit.  I  will  explain  for  him.     The  Italians  are  a  conglomer- 
ate of  all  the  barbarous  nations  in  the  world  —  a  mere  heap  of 
dirt  ;  yet  they  are  absurd  enough  to  call  everyone  a  barbarian 
not  born  in  Italy. 

Peter.  Perhaps  so.  But  Christ  died  for  all  men,  and  does  not 
respect  persons.  How  can  Christ's  Vicar  reject  those  whom 
Christ  accepts  ? 

Julius.  I  accept  everyone  who  will  pay  me  taxes  —  Indian, 
African,  Arab,  or  Greek  —  if  they  only  admit  my  supremacy  ; 
those  who  will  not  I  cast  off,  Greeks  especially,  who  are  obsti- 
nate schismatics. 

/  '<  ter.  So  Rome  is  to  be  the  general  treasury  of  the  world  ? 
Julius.  May  we  not  reap  their  carnal  things  when  we  sow  our 
spiritual  things  ? 

Peter.  What  spiritual  things?  You  tell  me  only  of  worldly 
things.  I  suppose  you  draw  souls  to  Christ  with  your  doc- 
trines ? 

Julius.  We  keep  preachers  if  they  are  wanted.  We  don't 
interfere  as  long  as  they  say  nothing  against  the  Pope's 
supremacy. 

Peter.  What  else  can  you  do  ? 

Julius.  What  else  ?  How  do  kings  levy  revenues  ?  They 
persuade  the  people  that  they  owe  their  fortunes  to  them,  and 
then  they  ask,  and  the  people  give.  So  we  make  the  people 
believe  that  they  owe  to  us  their  knowledge  of  God,  though  we 
sleep  all  our  lives.  Besides,  we  sell  them  indulgences  in  small 
matters  at  a  cheap  rate,  dispensations  for  not  much  more,  and 
for  blessings  we  charge  nothing. 


Lecture    VIII.  161 

Peter.  This  is  all  Greek  to  me.  But  why  do  you  hate  the 
barbarians,  and  move  heaven  and  earth  to  get  rid  of  them  ? 

Julius.  Because  barbarians  are  superstitious,  and  the  French 
worst  of  all. 

Peter.  Do  the  French  worship  other  gods  besides  Christ  ? 

Julias.  No  ;  but  they  have  precise  notions  of  what  is  due  to 
Christ.  They  use  hard  words  about  certain  things  which  we 
have  left  off. 

Peter.  Magical  words,  I  presume  ? 

Julius.  No,  not  magical.  They  talk  of  simony  and  blas- 
phemy, sodomy,  poisoning,  witchcraft,  in  language  expressing 
abomination  of  such  actions. 

Peter.  I  do  not  wish  to  be  personal,  but  can  it  be  that  such 
crimes  are  to  be  found  among  yourselves,  professing  Christians  ? 

Julius.  The  barbarians  have  vices  of  their  own.  They  cen- 
sure ours  and  forget  theirs.  We  tolerate  ours  and  abominate 
theirs.  Poverty,  for  instance,  we  look  on  as  so  wicked  that 
anything  is  justifiable  to  escape  from  it,  while  the  barbarians 
scarcely  approve  of  wealth  if  innocently  come  by.  We  abhor 
drunkenness,  though,  for  my  own  part,  if  time  and  place  suit,  I 
have  not  much  objection  to  it.  The  Germans  make  light  of 
drunkenness,  and  laugh  at  it.  Barbarians  forbid  usury  ;  we 
regard  it  as  a  necessary  institution.  They  think  looseness  with 
women  polluting  and  disgusting  ;  we  —  well,  we  do  not  think 
so  at  all.  They  are  shocked  at  simony  ;  we  never  mention  it. 
They  stick  to  old  laws  and  customs  ;  we  go  for  novelty  and 
progress.  While  our  views  of  life  are  so  different,  we  don't  like 
to  have  the  barbarians  too  close  to  us.  They  have  sharp  eyes. 
They  write  letters  about  us  to  our  friends.  They  say  Rome 
is  no  See  of  Christ,  but  a  sink  of  the  devil.  They  ask  whether, 
having  acquired  the  Papacy  as  I  did,  I  am  a  proper  Pope  at  all. 
Thus  my  name  is  brought  into  discredit,  while,  if  their  spies  had 
not  been  among  us,  it  would  never  have  been  heard  of,  and 
I  should  have  remained  Christ's  vicegerent  and  a  god  upon 
earth.  Thus  the  Church  suffers  :  we  sell  fewer  dispensations, 
and  get  a  worse  price  for  them,  and  we  receive  less  money  for 
bishoprics  and  abbeys  and  colleges  ;  worst  of  all,  people  are  no 
longer  frightened  at  our  thunderbolts.  Once  let  them  think 
that  a  wicked  Pope  cannot  hurt  them,  we  shall  be  starved  out. 
So  we  mean  to  keep  the  barbarian  at  a  distance.  He  will  then 
respect  us  as  he  used  to  do,  and  we  can  communicate  with  him 
through  Briefs  and  Bulls. 


162  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

PeU  r.  Bcspect  which  rests  on  ignorance  will  not  perhaps  last. 
In  our  time  all  the  world  was  welcome  to  know  what  we  were 
doing.  How  comes  it  that  the  princes  are  so  ready  to  take  up 
arms  lor  you,  while  to  us  they  were  the  worst  enemy  that  we 

had  ? 

Julius.  The  princes  are  not  so  particularly  Christian  —  on  the 
contrary,  they  hold  us  in  sovereign  contempt.  But  the  weaker 
sort  among  their  subjects  are  still  afraid  of  being  excommuni- 
cated,  and  the  princes  are  obliged  to  consider  their  opinions. 
Then  we  are  rich,  and  this  commands  a  certain  deference  ;  and 
there  is  a  superstitious  impression  that  it  is  unlucky  to  quarrel 
with  priests.  We  have  ceremonials  which  impose  upon  the  vul- 
gar. We  give  the  princes  grand  titles,  call  one  Catholic,  another 
Serene  Highness,  another  Augustus,  and  all  of  them  our  Beloved 
Sous.  They  in  turn  call  us  Holy  Father,  and  now  and  then  kiss 
our  foot.  We  send  them  consecrated  roses,  cups,  and  swords, 
and  Bulls  confirming  their  rights  to  their  crowns.  They  make 
us  presents  of  soldiers,  money,  and  now  and  then  a  boy  or 
two.  So  it  goes  on  —  as  the  Proverb  says,  "Mule  scratches 
mule." 

Peter.  I  still  do  not  understand  why  the  princes  broke  their 
treaties  and  went  to  war  on  your  account. 

Julius.  Listen  then,  and  you  will  see  how  clever  I  am.  First 
I  studied  the  humour  of  each  nation,  which  agreed  with  which, 
and  which  was  hostile  to  which.  There  was  an  old  grievance 
between  the  French  and  the  Venetians.  The  French  wanted  to 
increase  their  territory.  The  Venetians  held  towns  which  the 
French  claimed  ;  again,  the  Venetians  held  positions  which  the 
Emperor  wanted  :  so  I  easily  brought  France  and  the  Empire 
into  line  against  the  Venetians.  The  French  were  too  success- 
ful, so  I  next  stirred  up  Spain  to  check  them.  The  Spaniards 
were  afraid  for  their  possessions  in  Naples,  and  were  jealous  of 
the  French  advance  in  Italy.  I  did  not  love  the  Venetians,  but 
I  made  use  of  them  in  the  same  way  while  they  were  sore  at 
their  defeats.  I  had  first  brought  the  Emperor  Maximilian  into 
alliance  with  the  French.  When  the  French  were  growing  too 
strong,  I  worked  on  his  old  animosities  and  divided  him  from 
them.  The  English  have  an  hereditary  hatred  of  France,  and 
also  an  old  feud  with  the  Scots,  who  are  a  fierce  race,  eager  for 
war  and  plunder.  The  English  king  had  just  died.  The  peo- 
ple had  broken  loose  and  were  ready  for  mischief.  His  succes- 
sor, luckily  for  us,  was  a  restless,  ambitious  young  prince,  whose 


Lecture   VIII.  163 

dream  as  a  child  had  been  the  recovery  of  the  French  provinces. 
All  these  cards  I  played  in  the  interest  of  the  Church,  and  thus 
easily  brought  on  a  general  war.  I  gratified  the  Emperor,  the 
Spaniards,  and  the  English  with  the  honest  title  of  the  Church's 
Protectors,  to  encourage  them  to  work  the  more  destruction 
among  Christian  nations.  The  Spanish  king  was  at  that  mo- 
ment at  war  with  the  Turks.  He  dropped  it,  left  his  proper 
business  on  my  account,  and  threw  his  whole  strength  on  France. 
Nowhere  in  the  world  is  the  Pope  less  regarded  than  in  Eng- 
land. Read  the  story  of  their  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury  and 
their  old  Constitutions,  and  you  will  be  in  no  doubt  of  that. 
They  don't  like  parting  with  their  money  either  ;  but  they  let 
me  swallow  them  at  a  mouthful.  Their  clergy,  generally  so 
stingy,  opened  their  purses.  The  princes  paid  no  heed  to  the 
precedent  which  they  were  sanctioning  when  they  let  a  Roman 
bishop  depose  a  sovereign  whom  he  hated.  Indeed,  the  young 
king  of  England  took  up  my  quarrel  more  hotly  than  I  desired, 
though  of  course  it  was  well  that  he  should  err  on  the  right  side. 
I  need  not  follow  the  story  further.  I,  by  my  own  cleverness, 
contrived  a  combination  against  a  Christian  State,  which  no 
one  of  my  predecessors  had  been  even  able  to  form  against 
the  Turks. 

Peter.  You  have  lit  a  fire  which  may  spread  over  the  world. 

Julius.  Let  it  spread,  so  the  Holy  See  keeps  its  supremacy 
and  its  possessions.  I  contrived,  however,  to  throw  the  burden 
of  the  war  from  the  Italians  to  the  barbarians.  Let  them  fight 
as  they  will,  while  we  look  on  and  make  our  profit  of  their  mad- 
ness. 

Peter.  Does  this  befit  your  position  as  Holy  Father  and  Vicar 
of  Christ  ? 

Julius.  Why  did  the  French  make  a  schism  ? 

Peter.  We  must  bear  with  things  which  we  shall  make  worse 
by  trying  to  mend  them.  But,  if  you  had  allowed  their  council, 
there  would  have  been  no  schism. 

Julius.  God  forbid  !  Better  six  hundred  wars  than  a  council. 
Suppose  I  had  been  deposed  for  simony  !  Suppose  the  council 
had  looked  into  my  life  and  published  an  account  of  it  ! 

Peter.  Even  if  you  had  been  rightly  Pope,  you  would  have 
done  better  to  resign  than  to  have  caused  such  a  torrent  of 
misery  in  defending  your  dignity.  Fine  dignity  bought  or  stolen 
by  a  rascal  !  The  French  have  been  rightly  punished  for  help- 
iug  your  election. 


104  Life,  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Julius.  By  my  triple  crown  and  by  my  victories,  I  will  make 
you  know  who  Julius  is  if  yon  provoke  me  further. 

Peter.  Poor  worldly  madman  —  or  not  even  worldly  :  Gentile 
and  worse  than  Gentile  —  will  you  boast  of  your  treaty-breaking 
and  your  accursed  wars  ?  These  are  Satan's  arts,  not  a  pope's. 
A  Vicar  of  Christ  should  be  like  Christ.  Christ  has  sovereign 
power,  but  He  has  sovereign  goodness,  sovereign  wisdom,  sov- 
ereign simplicity.  Power  with  you  is  joined  with  madness  and 
vanity.  If  Satan  needed  a  vicar,  he  could  find  none  fitter  than 
you.     What  sign  have  you  ever  shown  of  an  apostle  ? 

Julius.  Is  it  not  apostolic  to  increase  Christ's  Church? 

Peter.  The  Church  is  a  community  of  Christians  with  Christ's 
Spirit  in  them.     You  have  been  a  subverter  of  the  Church. 

Julius.  The  Church  consists  of  cathedrals,  and  priests,  and  the 
Court  of  Rome,  and  myself  at  the  head  of  it. 

Peter.  Christ  is  our  Head,  and  we  are  His  ministers.  Are 
there  two  Heads  ?     How  have  you  increased  the  Church  ? 

Julius.  I  found  it  poor  :  I  have  made  it  splendid. 

Peter.  Splendid  with  what  ?     With  faith  ? 

Julius.  Nonsense. 

Peter.  With  doctrine  ? 

Julius.  A  fig  for  doctrine. 

Peter.  With  contempt  of  the  world  ? 

Julius.  These  are  words.     I  have  made  it  splendid  with  fact. 

Peter.  How  ? 

Julius.  I  have  filled  Rome  with  palaces,  trains  of  mules  and 
horses,  troops  of  servants,  armies  and  officers. 

Spirit.  With  scarlet  women  and  the  like. 

Julius.  With  purple  and  gold,  with  revenues  so  vast  that  kings 
are  poor  beside  the  Roman  Pontiff.  Glory,  luxury,  hoards  of 
treasure,  these  are  splendours,  and  these  all  I  have  created. 

Peter.  Pray,  inform  me.  The  Church  had  nothing  of  all  this 
when  it  was  founded  by  Christ.  Whence  came  all  this  splen- 
dour, as  you  call  it  ? 

Julius.  No  matter  whence.  We  have  it  and  we  enjoy  it. 
They  say  Constantine  made  a  present  to  Pope  Sylvester  of  the 
empire  of  the  world.  I  don't  believe  it.  None  but  a  fool  would 
have  given  away  an  empire.  But  it  stops  the  mouths  of  people 
who  ask  questions. 

Peter.  At  any  rate,  this  is  the  worldly  side.  How  about  the 
other  ? 

Julius.  You  are  thinking  of  the  old  affair,  when  you  starved 


Lecture    VIII.  165 

as  Pope,  with  a  handful  of  poor  hunted  hishops  about  you.  Time 
has  changed  all  that,  and  much  for  the  better.  You  had  only 
the  name  of  Pope.  Look  now  at  our  gorgeous  churches,  our 
priests  by  thousands  ;  bishops  like  kings,  with  retinues  and  pal- 
aces ;  cardinals  in  their  purple  gloriously  attended,  horses  and 
mules  decked  with  gold  and  jewels,  and  shod  with  gold  and  sil- 
ver. Beyond  all,  myself,  Supreme  Pontiff,  borne  on  soldiers' 
shoulders  in  a  golden  chair,  and  waving  my  hand  majestically  to 
adoring  crowds.  Hearken  to  the  roar  of  the  cannon,  the  bugle 
notes,  the  boom  of  the  drums.  Observe  the  military  engines, 
the  shouting  populace,  torches  blazing  in  street  and  square,  and 
the  kings  of  the  earth  scarce  admitted  to  kiss  my  Holiness's  foot. 
Behold  the  Roman  Bishop  placing  the  crown  on  the  head  of  the 
Emperor,  who  seems  to  be  made  king  of  kings,  yet  is  but  the 
shadow  of  a  name.  Look  at  all  this,  and  tell  me  it  is  not  mag- 
nificent ! 

Peter.  I  look  at  a  very  worldly  tyrant,  an  enemy  of  Christ  and 
a  disgrace  to  the  Church. 

Julius.  You  would  not  say  so  had  you  seen  me  carried  in  state 
at  Bologua  and  at  Rome  after  the  war  with  Venice,  or  when  I 
beat  the  French  at  Ravenna.  Those  were  spectacles.  Car- 
riages and  horses,  troops  under  arms,  generals  prancing  and 
galloping,  lovely  boys,  torches  flaming,  dishes  steaming,  pomp 
of  bishops,  glory  of  cardinals,  trophies,  spoils,  shouts  that  i*ent 
the  heavens,  trumpets  blaring,  cannon  thundering,  money  scat- 
tered among  the  mob,  and  I  carried  aloft,  the  head  and  author 
of  it  all !     Scipio  and  Csesar  were  nothing  by  the  side  of  me. 

Peter.  Enough,  enough,  most  valorous  boaster.  Those  hea- 
thens were  human  compared  to  you  —  you,  who  triumphed 
because  so  many  thousand  Christians  had  been  slain  for  your 
ambition  ;  you,  a  Holy  Father  in  Christ,  who  never  did  good  to 
any  single  soul  in  word  or  deed  —  precious  Father,  worthy  vicar 
of  Him  who  spent  himself  that  He  might  save  all  ;  you,  who 
have  spread  desolation  through  the  world  for  the  sake  of  your 
own  single  pestilent  self  ! 

Julius.  Mere  envy  !  You  perceive  what  a  poor  wretch  of  a 
bishop  you  were  compared  to  me. 

Peter.  Insolent  wretch  !  Dare  you  compare  your  glory  with 
mine?  —  and  mine  was  Christ's,  and  not  my  own.  Christ  gave 
to  me  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven,  trusted  His  sheep  to 
my  feeding  and  sealed  my  faith  with  His  approval.  Fraud, 
usury,  and  cunning  made  you  Pope,  if  Pope  you  are  to  be  called. 


166  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

I  gained  thousands  of  souls  to  Christ  :  you  have  destroyed  as 
main  thousands.  I  brought  heathen  Rome  to  acknowledge 
Christ:  you  have  made  it  heathen  again.  I  healed  the  sick, 
cast  out  devils,  restored  the  dead  to  life,  and  brought  a  blessing 
with  me  where  I  went.  What  blessings  have  you  and  your 
triumphs  brought?  I  used  my  power  for  the  good  of  all:  you 
have  used  yours  to  crush  and  vex  mankind. 

Julius.  You  have  not  told  the  whole.  You  have  left  out  of 
your  list  poverty,  vigils,  toils,  prisons,  chains,  blows,  and  the 
cross  to  end  with. 

Peter.  You  do  well  to  remind  me.  I  glory  in  those  sufferings 
more  than  in  miracles.  It  was  in  them  that  Christ  bade  us 
rejoice,  and  called  us  blessed.  Paul  did  not  talk  of  the  cities 
which  he  had  stormed,  the  legions  which  he  had  slaughtered, 
the  princes  whom  he  had  entangled  in  war  :  he  talked  of  ship- 
wrecks, bonds,  disgraces,  stripes.  These  were  his  apostolic 
triumphs,  these  were  the  glories  of  a  Christian  general.  When 
he  boasted,  it  was  of  the  souls  whom  he  had  recovered  from 
Satan,  not  of  his  piles  of  ducats.  For  us  even  the  wicked  had 
good  words,  while  you  every  tongue  of  man  has  been  taught  to 
curse. 

Julius.  All  this  is  news  to  me. 

Peter.  Very  likely.  With  your  treaties  and  your  protocols, 
your  armies  and  your  victories,  you  had  no  time  to  read  the 
Gospels.  The  discipline  of  Christ  will  not  work  on  a  mind  ab- 
sorbed in  this  world.  Our  Master  did  not  come  from  heaven  to 
teach  an  easy  philosophy.  To  be  a  Christian  is  no  idle  profes- 
sion. To  be  a  Christian  is  to  be  careless  of  pleasure,  to  tread 
riches  under  foot  as  dirt,  and  count  life  as  nothing.  And  be- 
cause the  ride  is  hard,  men  turn  to  empty  forms  and  ceremonies, 
and  create  a  spurious  body  of  Christ  for  a  spurious  head. 

Julius.  Do  you  mean  to  say  I  am  to  give  up  money,  dominion, 
revenues,  pleasures,  life  ?     Will  you  leave  me  to  misery  ? 

Peter.  Yes,  if  you  count  Christ  as  miserable.  He  who  was 
Lord  of  all  became  the  scorn  of  all,  endured  poverty,  endured 
labour,  fasting,  and  hunger,  and  ended  with  a  death  of  shame. 

Julius.  Very  admirable,  no  doubt.  But  He  will  not  find  many 
imitators  in  these  times  of  ours. 

Peter.  To  admire  is  to  imitate.  Christ  takes  nothing  good 
from  any  man.  He  takes  what  is  falsely  called  good,  to  give 
him  instead  eternal  truth,  as  soon  as  he  is  purged  from  the  taint 
of   the   world.      Being   Himself   heavenly,   He   will   have   His 


Lecture   VIII.  167 

Church  like  Him,  estranged  from  the  world's  corruption,  and 
those  who  are  sunk  in  pollution  can  not  resemble  One  who  is 
sitting  in  heaven.  Once  for  all,  fling  away  your  imagined 
wealth,  and  receive  instead  what  is  far  better. 

Julius.  What,  I  beseech  you  ? 

Peter.  The  gift  of  prophecy,  the  gift  of  knowledge,  the  gift  of 
miracles,  Christ  Himself.  The  more  a  man  is  afflicted  iu  the 
world  the  greater  his  joy  in  Christ,  the  poorer  in  the  world 
the  richer  in  Christ,  the  more  cast  down  in  the  world  the  more 
exalted  in  Christ.  Christ  will  have  His  followers  pure,  and  most 
of  all  His  ministers,  the  bishops.  The  higher  in  rank  they  are 
the  more  like  Christ  they  are  bouud  to  be,  aud  the  less  entangled 
in  earthly  pleasures.  Yet  you,  the  bishop  next  to  Christ,  who 
make  yourself  equal  with  Christ,  think  only  of  money,  and  arms, 
and  treaties,  to  say  nothing  of  vicious  pleasures,  and  you  abuse 
His  name  to  support  your  own  vanities.  You  claim  the  honour 
due  to  Christ,  while  you  are  Christ's  enemy.  You  bless  others, 
you  are  yourself  accursed.  You  pretend  to  have  the  keys  of 
heaven,  and  you  are  yourself  shut  out  from  it.  You  consecrate, 
being  yourself  execrable  ;  you  excommunicate,  when  with  the 
saints  you  have  no  communion  ;  you  pretend  to  be  a  Christian, 
you  are  not  superior  to  a  Turk,  you  think  like  a  Turk,  you  are 
as  licentious  as  a  Turk.  If  there  is  any  difference,  you  are  the 
worse. 

Julius.  All  I  wanted  was  to  secure  for  the  Church  as  much 
good  as  possible — goods  of  fortune,  goods  of  body,  and  goods  of 
sold,  according  to  Aristotle's  division.  I  kept  the  order.  I 
began  witli  the  first,  and  would  have  gone  on  to  the  other  two 
if  death  had  not  overtaken  me  before  my  time. 

Peter.  Before  your  time  ?     Why  you  are  in  your  seventies. 

Julius.  The  world  will  not  respect  us,  and  the  Church  will 
go  to  pieces  if  we  are  poor  and  can't  defend  ourselves.  Money 
is  power.  They  may  hate  us  while  we  are  rich,  but  they  can't 
despise  us. 

Peter.  If  the  world  saw  the  gifts  of  Christ  in  you,  saw  you 
holy,  learned,  charitable,  virtuous,  it  would  think  more,  not  less, 
of  you  for  being  poor.  If  Christians  had  no  care  for  riches,  or 
pleasure,  or  empire,  if  they  were  not  afraid  of  death,  then  the 
Church  would  flourish  again.  It  withers  now  because  Christians 
have  ceased  to  exist  except  in  name.  Did  you  never  reflect,  you 
who  were  supreme  shepherd,  how  the  Church  began  in  this  world, 
how  it  grew,  how  it  strengthened  itself  ?  —  not  by  war,  not  by 


1G8  Life    and  Letters   of  Erasmus. 

horses,  not  by  gold  ingots  ;  but  by  suffering,  by  the  blood  of 
martyrs,  my  own  among  the  rest,  by  imprisonments  and  stripes. 
You  think  you  have  added  to  the  Church's  greatness  by  troops 
of  officials,  or  raised  its  character  when  you  have  polluted  it  with 
sumptuous  expenditure,  or  defended  its  interests  when  you  have 
se1  all  nations  fighting  that  priests  may  divide  the  spoil.  You 
call  the  Church  flourishing  when  it  is  drunk  with  luxury,  and 
tranquil  when  it  can  enjoy  its  wealth  and  its  pleasant  vices  with 
none  to  reprove,  and  when  you  have  taught  the  princes  to  call 
killing  and  plundering  by  the  fine  name  of  defense  of  the  Church. 

Julius.  I  have  heard  this  sort  of  thing  before. 

Peter.  Did  you  ever  hear  it  in  your  preachers'  sermons  ? 

Julius.  I  never  heard  anything  in  their  sermons  but  my  own 
praises.  They  exulted  in  what  I  did.  They  called  me  the  Jove 
who  shook  the  world  with  my  thunder.  They  said  I  was  a  real 
god,  the  saviour  of  mankind,  and  such  like. 

Peter.  No  wonder  none  was  found  to  speak  the  truth  to  you. 
Salt  you  were  without  savour,  and  a  fool  besides. 

Julius.  Then  you  won't  open  the  gates  ? 

Peter.  Sooner  to  anyone  than  to  such  as  you.  We  are  not  of 
your  communion  in  this  place.  You  have  an  army  of  sturdy 
rogues  behind  you,  you  have  money,  and  you  are  a  famous  archi- 
tect. Go  build  a  paradise  of  your  owu,  and  fortify  it,  lest  the 
devils  break  in  on  you. 

Julius.  I  will  do  better  than  that.  I  will  wait  a  few  months 
till  I  have  a  larger  force,  and  then  if  you  don't  give  in  I  will 
take  your  place  by  storm.  They  are  making  fine  havoc  just  now. 
I  shall  soon  have  sixty  thousand  ghosts  behind  me. 

Peter.  Oh,  wretched  man  !  Oh,  miserable  Church !  You, 
Spirit,  I  must  speak  with  you  ;  I  can  say  no  more  to  this  mon- 
ster.    Are  the  bishops  generally  like  this  one  ? 

Spirit.  A  good  part  of  them.    But  he  is  the  top,  far  and  away. 

Peter.  Was  it  you  who  tempted  him  to  commit  all  these  crimes  ? 

Spirit.  Not  I.  He  went  too  fast.  I  must  have  had  wings  to 
keep  abreast  of  him. 

Peter.  I  am  not  surprised  that  so  few  apply  here  now  for 
admission,  when  the  Church  has  such  rulers.  Yet  there  must 
be  good  in  the  world,  too,  when  such  a  sink  of  iniquity  can  be 
honoured,  merely  because  he  bears  the  name  of  Pope. 

Spirit.  That  is  the  real  truth  —  But  my  master  beckons  to 
me  and  lifts  his  stick.     Adieu  ! 


LECTURE  IX. 

Erasmus  was  not  allowed  to  leave  England  without 
an  effort  in  the  highest  quarters  to  detain  him. 
When  he  waited  on  the  King  to  take  leave,  Henry 
offered  him  a  house,  with  a  pension  of  600  florins,  if 
he  would  stay.  The  Cardinal  of  York,  the  second 
king,  as  Erasmus  called  Wolsey,  was  gracious  and 
warm.  Erasmus  neither  accepted  nor  declined.  For 
the  present  he  was  in  correspondence  with  the  Court 
of  Brussels,  and  thither  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 
go.  The  King's  liberality  was  in  promises.  The 
Bishop  of  Durham  presented  him  with  six  angels  (an- 
gel equals  ten  shillings),  Warham  and  Fisher  with  as 
much  more.  It  was  rumoured  in  Holland  that  he 
was  returning  with  a  fortune.  This  was  the  whole 
of  it.  Lord  Mountjoy  had  been  made  Governor  of 
Hammes  Castle,  in  the  Calais  Pale.  Erasmus  was  to 
be  his  guest  there  for  a  few  days  after  crossing  the 
Channel.  He  sailed  (we  have  here  a  welcome  fixed 
date)  from  Dover,  July  8,  1514,  with  a  calm  sea  and 
a  fair  wind,  fortune  otherwise  being  foul  as  usual. 
The  Custom-house  officers  did  not  seize  his  money 
this  time,  but  they  detained  his  luggage  with  his 
MSS.  Probably  he  spoke  English  ill,  and  could  not 
explain  himself.  He  made  the  air  ring  with  his 
clamours,  called  them  robbers,  assured  himself  that 
they  had  stolen  the  labours  of  his  life  to  sell  his 
papers  back  to  him  at  their  own  price.  In  a  few 
hours    or  days  he   and  his  possessions  were  safe  in 


170  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Hammes  Castle,  where  another  unpleasant  surprise 
was  waiting  for  him.  He  was  still  a  monk  at  large 
from  his  convent  under  the  temporary  dispensation 
which  the  Bishop  of  Cambray  had  obtained  for  him 
nearly  thirty  years  before.  He  was  then  an  insignifi- 
cant boj\  He  was  now  a  dangerous  spiritual  force. 
To  reduce  Erasmus  under  a  rule  which  he  had  de- 
serted and  ridiculed  would  be  a  triumph  worth  hav- 
ing in  the  contest  which  was  now  raging.  A  letter 
reached  him  at  Hammes  from  Father  Servatius,  the 
prior  of  the  convent  from  which  he  had  been  rescued, 
putting  various  questions  prescribed  by  the  rules  of 
the  order,  as  to  how  he  had  been  employed  in  his 
absence,  how  he  had  lived,  what  sins  he  had  com- 
mitted, and  inviting  him  to  return.  Erasmus  replied 
with  a  courteous  but  peremptory  refusal.1 

Hammes  Castle,  July,  1514. 

Your  letter,  after  following  me  about  England,  has 
just  reached  my  hands.  I  have  nothing  to  reproach 
myself  with.  Age  and  experience  have  corrected  my 
early  follies.  I  left  my  profession  not  because  I  had 
any  fault  to  find  with  it,  but  because  I  would  not  be 
a  scandal  to  the  order.  You  know  that  I  was  forced 
into  it  by  interested  guardians.  My  constitution  was 
too  weak  to  bear  your  ride.  I  had  a  passion  for  liter- 
ature. I  knew  that  I  could  be  happy  and  useful  as  a 
man  of  letters.  But  to  break  the  vow  was  held  a 
crime,  and  I  endeavored  to  bear  my  misery.  My 
profession  was  a  mistake.  You  will  say  that  there 
was  the  year  of  probation,  and  that  I  might  have 
known  my  own  mind.  What  can  a  boy  of  seventeen 
brought  up  on  books  know  of  his  mind?  I  was  re- 
leased. I  was  left  to  my  own  will  to  choose  such 
form  of  life  as  would  suit  me,  and  I  was  lucky  enough 
to  find  friends  who  saved  me  from  falling  into  mis- 
chief. 

1  Ep.  viii.,  second  series,  abridged. 


Lecture  IX.  171 

I  say  nothing  of  my  writings.  Yon,  perhaps,  de- 
spise them ;  though  there  are  persons  who  believe 
them  to  be  not  without  merit.  But  I  have  not  sought 
money,  and  have  little  sought  fame.  Pleasiu-es  have 
tempted  me,  but  I  have  not  been  their  slave,  and 
grossness  I  have  always  abhorred.  What  should  I 
gain  by  rejoining  you?  I  should  be  an  object  of 
malice,  envy,  and  contemptuous  tittle-tattle.  Your 
festivals  have  no  flavour  of  Christ,  and  your  way  of 
life  does  not  edify  me.  My  health  is  still  weak.  I 
should  be  useless  to  you,  and  to  myself  it  would  be 
death.  I  can  drink  nothing  but  wine.  I  have  to  be 
nice  in  what  I  eat.  Too  well  I  know  your  climate 
and  the  character  of  your  food,  to  say  nothing  of  your 
manners.  I  should  die  of  it,  I  know.  You  may  say 
I  cannot  die  better  than  among  my  brethren.  I  am 
not  so  sure  of  that.  Your  religion  is  in  your  dress. 
You  think  it  sin  to  change  from  a  white  frock  to  a 
black,  or  from  a  hood  to  a  cap.  Your  religious 
orders,  as  you  call  them,  have  done  the  Church  small 
service.  They  divided  among  themselves ;  indul- 
gences followed,  and  dispensations,  and  nothing  is 
worse  than  relaxed  religion.  There  is  no  religion 
left  in  it  save  forms,  which  please  the  monks'  vanity, 
and  make  them  fancy  themselves  superior  to  the  rest 
of  mankind.  You  ask  me  if  I  do  not  wish  for  a  quiet 
home,  where  I  can  rest  in  my  old  age.  Solon  and 
Pythagoras  travelled.  Plato  travelled,  and  the  Apos- 
tles, specially  St.  Paul.  I  do  not  compare  myself  to 
them.  But  when  I  have  moved  about  it  has  been  for 
my  health  or  for  my  work.  I  have  been  invited  to 
Spain,  Italy,  Germany,  France,  England,  and  Scot- 
land by  the  most  distinguished  people  there.  I  am 
well  liked  at  Rome.  The  cardinals  and  the  present 
Pope  treated  me  like  a  brother.  I  am  not  rich,  and  I 
do  not  wish  to  be  rich ;  but  I  have  learning,  which 
they  value  in  Italy,  though  you  Netherlander  care 
little  for  it.  The  English  bishops  are  proud  of  my 
acquaintance.  The  King  writes  me  affectionate  let- 
ters ;  the  Queen  would  have  had  me  for  a  tutor,  and 


172  Life  and   Letters  of  Erasmus. 

have  kept  me  at  Court  if  I  would  have  consented. 
The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  could  not  have  been 
kinder  had  he  been  my  father.  He  gave  me  a  bene- 
fice, and  changed  it  at  my  desire  for  a  pension.  One 
day  he  gave  me  150  crowns.  Other  bishops  gave  me 
large  sums,  and  Lord  Mount  joy  a  second  pension. 
The  King  and  the  Bishop  of  Lincoln  (Wolsey)  both 
wish  to  keep  me  in  England.  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
are  ready  to  receive  me,  and  there  is  more  piety  and 
temperance  in  the  colleges  there  than  in  any  houses 
of  religion.  Dean  Colet  has  no  friend  whom  he 
values  as  he  values  me. 

As  to  my  writings,  good  judges  say  that  I  write 
better  than  any  other  man  living.  Were  I  with  you 
I  could  do  nothing  at  all.  The  climate  would  dis- 
agree with  me.  I  left  you  a  vigorous  youth.  I  am 
now  a  grey-headed  invalid.  The  basest  of  the  base 
would  despise  me,  and  I  am  accustomed  to  the  respect 
of  the  greatest.  You  undertake  to  make  me  comfort- 
able. I  know  not  what  you  mean.  Am  I  to  be  an 
upper  servant  in  a  sisterhood,  I  who  have  never  served 
either  king  or  prelate  ?  I  want  no  money.  I  need 
no  stipend.  I  have  enough  for  health  and  leisure. 
I  propose  now  to  go  to  Bale  to  print  some  books. 
The  winter  I  shall  perhaps  spend  at  Rome.  On  my 
return,  I  shall  perhaps  pay  you  a  visit. 

The  prior  had  been  polite,  and  had  not  hinted  at 
compulsion.  But  Erasmus  knew  the  persons  that  he 
had  to  deal  with.  The  monks  were  exasperated,  and 
were  formidable.  He  had  no  longer  the  protection  of 
the  Bishop  of  Cambray  ;  and  by  law  and  custom  the 
order  might  call  on  the  civil  power  to  arrest  a  brother 
absent  without  leave,  or  who  had  broken  the  implied 
conditions  of  non-residence.  He  made  haste  to  secure 
himself,  and  it  was  on  this  occasion  that  he  wrote  the 
account  of  himself  under  the  name  of  Florence  of 
which  I  have  already  read  a  part  to  you  in  my  de- 
scription of  his  early  years.    The  remainder  is  equally 


Lecture  IX.  173 

interesting,  as  well  as  the  result  which  came  of  it. 
It  was  addressed,  as  you  may  remember,  to  the  Pro- 
thonotary  at  Rome,  and  was  meant  for  the  Pope's 
eye.  Erasmus's  special  danger  was  in  his  having  aban- 
doned the  dress  of  his  order.  Monks  who  had  dis- 
pensations for  absence  were  required  by  the  canons  to 
wear  publicly  some  distinctive  part  of  their  costume. 
Julius  II.  had  allowed  Erasmus  to  wear  this  or  to  drop 
it  as  he  pleased.  Perhaps  it  was  held  that  his  licence 
had  expired  with  the  Pope's  life,  and  he  was  now 
answerable  for  a  breach  of  the  law.  He  threw  him- 
self on  the  protection  of  Julius's  successor. J 
To  continue  this  story,  then,  where  I  left  it. 

TO    LAMBERT    GRUNNIUS.2 

Florence  3  went  to  Paris  to  follow  up  his  studies. 
He  wore  his  scapulary  over  his  frock,  and  his  life 
was  twice  in  danger  through  it.  The  physicians  who 
attended  the  plague  patients  were  ordered  to  avoid  the 
public  streets,  and  to  wear  a  white  scarf  that  people 
might  know  them  and  keep  out  of  their  way.  Florence 
was  unaware  of  the  rule.  One  day  he  was  seen  with  his 
scapulary  in  an  open  thoroughfare.  It  was  mistaken 
for  the  doctor's  scarf.  He  was  mobbed,  and  would 
have  been  killed  had  not  a  woman  called  out  that  he 
was  a  priest. 

Another  day  he  was  hunted  by  a  crowd,  and,  being 
unable  to  speak  French,  he  could  neither  understand 
them  nor  explain.  Someone  told  him  that  the  people 
were  excited  by  his  scapulary,  and  that  he  would  lose 
his  life  if  he  continued  to  appear  in  it. 

After  this  he  wore  it  under  his  cloak,  to  the  great 
indignation  of  those  who  thought  religion  lay  in  dress. 
A  Franciscan  Or  a  Dominican  who  conceals  his  pro- 
fession is  held  an  abandoned  villain.  The  Dominican's 
frock,  it  is  held,  will  save  a  dead  man  from  hell  if  it  is 
thrown  over  his  body. 

1  See  pages  5-16. 

2  Ep.  ccecxlii.,  second  series,  abridged. 

3  The  name  under  which  Erasmus  describes  himself. 


174  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Nevertheless,  the  papal  decretals  permit  the  laying 
asiile  of  the  monastic  dress  for  adequate  reason. 
Augustine  says  [Erasmus  had  been  an  Augustinian] 
nothing  about  clothes,  and  only  insists  on  morals. 
Florence  knew  this,  but  to  be  on  the  safe  side  he  ob- 
tained a  dispensation  releasing  him  from  the  scapulary 
provided  he  wore  some  other  mark  of  his  order  on  some 
part  of  his  person.  He  was  told  when  he  went  to  Eng- 
land that  he  must  not  show  his  scapulary  in  public 
under  any  condition.  Forms  which  are  required  in 
one  country  may  be  forbidden  in  another.  Florence 
moved  in  high  society,  and  had  to  conform  to  usage. 
To  change  backwards  and  forwards  created  scandal ;  so 
at  friends'  advice,  and  trusting  to  the  Pope's  licence, 
he  adopted  the  costume  of  a  secular  priest.  The  mon- 
astic vow  itself  he  regarded  as  slavery.  The  New 
Testament  knows  nothing  of  monastic  vows.  Christ 
says  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  man,  and  not  man  for 
the  Sabbath ;  and  when  such  institutions  do  more  harm 
than  good  there  ought  to  be  easier  means  of  escaping 
from  them  than  are  now  provided.  The  Pharisees  of 
the  Church  will  break  the  Sabbath  for  an  ox  or  an  ass, 
but  will  not  relax  an  inch  of  their  rule  to  save  a  perish- 
ing soul. 

There  are  monasteries  where  there  is  no  discipline, 
and  which  are  worse  than  brothels  —  ut  prce  his  lupa- 
naria  shit  et  magis  sobria  et  magis  pudica.  There 
are  others  where  religion  is  nothing  but  ritual ;  and 
these  are  worse  than  the  first,  for  the  Spirit  of  God  is 
not  in  them,  and  they  are  inflated  with  self-righteous- 
ness. There  are  those,  again,  where  the  brethren  are 
so  sick  of  the  imposture  that  they  keej)  it  up  only  to 
deceive  the  vulgar.  The  houses  are  rare  indeed  where 
the  ride  is  seriously  observed,  and  even  in  these  few, 
if  you  look  to  the  bottom,  you  will  find  small  sincerity. 
But  there  is  craft,  and  plenty  of  it —  craft  enough  to 
impose  on  mature  men,  not  to  say  innocent  boys  ;  and 
this  is  called  profession.  Suppose  a  house  where  all 
is  ;is  it  ought  to  be,  you  have  no  security  that  it  will 
continue  so.     A  good  superior  may  be  followed  by  a 


Lecture  IX.  175 

fool  or  a  tyrant,  or  an  infected  brother  may  introduce 
a  moral  plague.  True,  in  extreme  cases  a  monk  may 
change  his  house,  or  even  may  change  his  order,  but 
leave  is  rarely  given.  There  is  always  a  suspicion  of 
something  wrong,  and  on  the  least  complaint  such  a 
person  is  sent  back.  And  besides,  how  can  he  know 
that  the  house  to  which  he  goes  is  better  than  the 
house  which  he  is  leaving  ?  The  change  is  but  a  throw 
of  the  dice.  He  may  find  himself  worse  off  than  he  was. 
Young  men  are  fooled  and  cheated  into  joining  these 
orders.  Once  in  the  toils,  they  are  broken  in  and 
trained  into  Pharisees.  They  may  repent,  but  the  su- 
periors  will  not  let  them  go,  lest  they  should  betray  the 
orgies  which  they  have  witnessed.  They  crush  them 
down  with  scourge  and  penance,  the  secular  arm,  chan- 
ceries and  dungeons.  Nor  is  this  the  worst.  Cardinal 
Matteo 1  said  at  a  public  dinner  before  a  large  audi- 
ence, naming  place  and  persons,  that  the  Dominicans 
had  buried  a  young  man  alive  whose  father  demanded 
his  son's  release.  A  Polish  noble  who  had  fallen  asleep 
in  a  church  saw  two  Franciscans  buried  alive ;  yet  these 
wretches  called  themselves  the  representatives  of  Ben- 
edict and  Basil  and  Jerome.  A  monk  may  be  drunk 
every  day.  He  may  go  with  loose  women  secretly 
or  openly.  He  may  waste  the  Church's  money  on 
vicious  pleasures.  He  may  be  a  quack  or  a  charla- 
tan, and  all  the  while  be  an  excellent  brother  and  fit  to 
be  made  an  abbot ;  while  one  who  for  the  best  of  rea- 
sons lays  aside  his  frock  is  howled  at  as  an  apostate.2 
Surely  the  true  apostate  is  he  who  goes  into  sensuality, 
pomp,  vanity,  the  lusts  of  the  flesh,  the  sins  which  he 
renounced  at  his  baptism.  All  of  us  would  think  him 
a  worse  man  than  the  other  if  the  commonness  of  such 
characters  did  not  hide  their  deformity.  Monks  of 
abandoned  lives  notoriously  swarm  over  Christendom. 

1  " MaUkct'.us  Cardinalis  Sedimensis,"1  an  intimate  personal  acquaint- 
ance of  Erasmus. 

2  "Qui  in  sacra  veste  indulget  quotidiana3  temulentiaj,  qui  guhu  ser- 
vit  et  ventri,  qui  scortatm' clam  et  palam,  nihil  enini  addam  obsccenius, 
qui  luxu  profundit  Ecclesia;  pecuniam,  probus  est  monachus  et  vocatur 
ad  abbatiam,"  etc. 


17G  Life  and  Letter*  of  Erasmus. 

Those  are  the  true  apostates,  and  on  them  the  hated 
name  ought  to  fall  though  they  may  still  wear  the 
cowl. 

Is  it  not  wicked,  then,  my  friend,  to  entangle  young 
men  by  false  representations  in  such  an  abominable 
net  ?  Monks  whose  lives  are  openly  infamous  draw 
boys  after  them  into  destruction.  The  convent  at  best 
is  but  a  miserable  bondage,  and  if  there  be  outward 
decency  (as  among  so  many  there  must  be  s6me  unde- 
praved),  a  knot  which  cannot  be  loosed  may  be  still 
fatal  to  soul  and  body. 

It  is  pretended  that  novices  are  not  admitted  till  ma- 
ture age.  Maturity  suffices  for  marriage,  why  not  for 
the  monastic  profession?  Yet  men  have  joined  at 
thirty,  and  have  been  aghast  at  what  they  found.  They 
had  been  taken  in  by  specious  words.  The  orders 
talk  of  purity  as  if  they  were  themselves  pure  ;  of  obe- 
dience, as  if  while  obeying  man  they  were  not  disobey- 
ing God ;  of  irrevocable  vows,  when  no  vows  ought  to 
be  irrevocable.  They  quote  their  Scotus  to  prove  that 
a  monk's  vow  cannot  be  recalled  because  it  is  made  to 
God.  These  orders  depend  for  their  existence  upon 
the  Pope  ;  yet  let  the  Pope  for  cause  shown  set  a  monk 
at  liberty,  they  defy  him,  they  deny  his  authority,  they 
accuse  him  of  a  crime.  As  long  as  he  does  what  they 
please,  he  is  Vicar  of  Christ  and  cannot  err  ;  when  he 
thwarts  them,  they  say  he  is  but  an  ordinary  man. 

I  do  not  condemn  the  regular  orders  as  such.  If 
there  are  persons  for  whom  the  rule  is  salutary,  the 
vow  may  stand.  But  the  more  sacred  the  profession, 
the  more  caution  must  be  observed  in  the  admission  to 
it.  There  must  be  no  influencing,  or  violence  or  terror. 
It  ought  not  to  bind  when  a  frightened  lad  has  had  the 
halter  forced  upon  him.  Shame  on  a  law  which  says  that 
a  vow  taken  when  the  down  is  on  the  cheek  is  of  perpet- 
ual obligation  !  Florence  was  goaded  into  it.  They 
made  him  wear  the  dress,  but  they  never  had  his  con- 
sent. His  oath  was  but  an  oath  sworn  to  so  many  pi- 
rates. The  Pope  will  surely  disown  these  villains  and 
protect  their  victims.     What  is  the  charge  which  they 


Lecture  IX.  177 

bring-  against  Florence  ?  That  he  does  not  wear  the 
scapnlary  ontside.  Who  knows  that  he  does  not  wear 
it  inside  ?  If  he  does  not  wear  it  at  all,  who  knows 
his  reasons  ?  The  Pope  gave  him  leave.  If  the  Pope 
is  absolute  in  other  things,  why  not  in  this  ?  What  is 
their  obedience  worth  when  they  will  hear  neither  God 
nor  man  ?  They  call  themselves  dead  to  the  world, 
while  unspeakable  enormities  are  daily  brought  home 
to  them. 

It  is  hateful  to  taunt  a  man  with  a  misfortune  which 
the  malice  of  others  has  caused.  If  a  niule  has  bro- 
ken a  man's  leg",  who  is  brute  enough  to  insult  him  for 
being  lame  ?  If  he  has  lost  an  eye  in  a  battle,  do  we 
ridicule  his  blindness  ?  Do  we  sneer  at  a  shipwrecked 
mariner  who  is  reduced  to  beggary  ?  or  at  a  leper  or 
an  epileptic  who  has  inherited  his  disorder  from  his 
parents?  Men  deserving  to  be  called  men  pity  and 
relieve  the  helpless ;  and  is  a  wretched  being  who  has 
fled  from  an  order  into  which  he  was  thrust  to  be  re- 
viled as  an  apostate?  If  to  leave  them  was  a  fault, 
the  guilt  is  with  his  accusers.  We  do  not  blame  a 
man  for  flying  from  a  pirates'  nest,  and  those  who  rob 
another  of  his  liberty  are  pirates  to  him.  Or,  to  use  a 
milder  comparison,  if  a  cobbler  makes  an  ill-fitting 
boot  for  a  customer,  and  the  customer  refuses  to  wear 
it,  the  cobbler  will  be  a  fool  if  he  quarrels  with  him. 
The  customer  will  say  the  boot  may  be  a  good  boot  in 
itself,  but  is  not  a  good  boot  for  him.  An  institution 
may  be  useful  for  one  person  and  may  be  deadly  to 
another. 

To  make  an  end,  my  dear  friend.  If  I  have  made 
out  a  case  for  Florence,  I  entreat  you  to  see  his  release 
dispatched  to  him  with  all  possible  speed.  Spare  no 
expense ;  I  will  be  responsible.  In  the  open  space  at 
the  bottom  I  have  noted  a  few  points  in  cipher,  to  be 
particularly  attended  to  in  the  diploma.  I  send  the  key 
in  another  letter.    You  must  hold  the  paper  to  the  fire. 

Before  I  come  to  the  answer  of  the  Prothonotary,  I 
have  a  few  observations  to  make  on  this  letter  itself. 


178  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

First,  that  Florence  was  undoubtedly  Erasmus  himself, 
and  was  so  understood  to  be  by  the  Roman  authorities. 
The  story  of  Florence  corresponds  exactly  with  what 
we  know  from  the  other  sources  to  have  been  Eras- 
mus's own  story.  Erasmus  says  at  the  beginning  that 
Florence  was  intimately  known  to  him,  and  that  he  had 
himself  been  an  eye-witness  of  much  that  he  was  re- 
lating. 

There  is  really  no  doubt  about  the  matter,  and  I 
have  made  confident  use  of  this  letter  as  autobio- 
graphical, in  common  with  Bayle,  Jortin,  and  other 
biographers. 

But  the  letter  is  of  larger  importance  as  an  evi- 
dence of  the  condition  of  the  religious  houses  at  the 
time  when  Erasmus  was  writing.  Whether  Florence 
was  or  was  not  Erasmus  himself,  the  account  which 
he  gives  of  monastic  profligacy  he  gives  deliberately 
as  his  own,  and  he  speaks  of  it  as  something  too  well 
known  to  the  Pope  to  need  further  proof.  He  quotes 
Cardinal  Matteo  as  publicly  accusing  the  Dominicans 
of  murder,  mentioning  name  and  place.  It  is  boldly 
said  now  that  the  charges  against  the  religious  houses 
in  England  were  invented  as  an  excuse  for  their  dis- 
solution ;  and  in  accepting  this  version  of  the  suppres- 
sion in  our  authoritative  histories  we  not  only  accept 
the  innocence  of  the  monks,  but  we  degrade  and  dis- 
grace the  English  Privy  Council  and  the  English 
Parliament.  What  business  have  we  to  pass  such 
summary  sentence?  Erasmus  was  not  tempting  the 
cupidity  of  kings,  or  appealing  to  the  passions  of 
mobs.  He  was  addressing  the  Prothonotary  of  the 
Apostolic  See.  His  letter  was  to  be  read  in  conclave 
to  pope  and  cardinals.  If  he  had  lied  or  had  exag- 
gerated, if  every  word  which  he  wrote  had  not  been 
known  to  be  the  truth,  he  woxdd  have  ruined  himself 


Lecture  IX.  179 

and  his  cause.  You  are  students  of  history ;  you 
know  that  you  have  no  right  to  set  evidence  aside,  to 
adapt  it  to  your  own  prepossessions.  Neither  Thomas 
Cromwell  nor  Cromwell's  visitors,  nor  the  Act  of  Par- 
liament which  speaks  of  the  manifest  sin  in  the  reli- 
gious houses,  spoke  so  harshly  of  them  as  Erasmus  did 
to  Leo  X.  and  to  the  heads  of  the  Church  of  Rome  in 
this  letter. 

The  answer  of  the  Prothonotary  is  equally  instruc- 
tive. Leo  respected  Erasmus,  recognised  his  value, 
admired  his  talents,  and  did  not  choose  that  he  should 
be  dragged  back  into  a  nest  of  infuriated  rattlesnakes. 

Never  in  my  life  (writes  Lambert  Grunnius  in 
reply1)  have  I  undertaken  a  commission  more  will- 
ingly than  this  with  which  you  have  now  entrusted 
me.  I  have  settled  it  in  a  form  which  I  hope  will 
be  satisfactory  to  you.  Unfortunate  Florence  !  The 
cruelty  of  his  fate  has  moved  me  even  more  than  my 
affection  for  yourself.  I  read  your  letter  aloud  to 
the  Pope  from  end  to  end ;  several  cardinals  and 
other  great  persons  were  present.  The  Holy  Father 
was  charmed  with  your  style,  and  was  more  indignant 
than  one  could  have  believed  to  be  possible.  Those 
abominable  scoundrels !  The  greater  the  respect  of 
the  Pope  for  genuine  piety,  the  more  displeased  is  he 
at  the  dishonour  done  to  the  Christian  religion  by  the 
multiplication  of  miserable  and  wicked  monks.  He 
says  that  Christ  is  pleased  with  sacrifice  when  it  is 
freely  offered,  but  He  will  have  no  workhouses  of 
slaves.  He  directs  that  your  diploma  shall  be  made 
out  free  of  costs.  I  have  given  three  ducats  to  the 
clerks  and  notaries  to  be  quick  with  their  work.  You 
know  what  those  fellows  are  —  you  must  fling  a  sop 
or  two  to  Cerberus.  Farewell !  Salute  Florence  for 
me.     He  is  now  our  common  friend. 

Free  now,  and  with  no  more  to  fear  from  vengeful 
monks,  Erasmus  went  first  on  business  to  Antwerp, 
1  Ep.  ccccxliii.,  second  series. 


180  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

and  then  hastened  to  present  himself  at  Brussels. 
He  called  on  the  Chancellor  of  the  Empire,  and  was 
received  with  humorous  politeness.  He  was  drawn 
to  the  front  of  the  hrilliant  circle  which  formed  the 
Court  of  the  young  Archduke  Charles.  "This  fel- 
low," the  Chancellor  said,  introducing  Erasmus  to 
them,  "does  not  know  his  value.  Are  you  aware," 
he  said  to  him  before  all  the  world,  "  that  the  Arch- 
duke wishes  to  make  a  bishop  of  you?  He  has 
chosen  you  a  diocese,  not  a  bad  one,  in  Sicily ;  and, 
finding  it  was  not  among  the  sees  reserved  to  the 
Crown,  he  has  written  to  beg  the  Pope  to  let  you 
have  it."  Erasmus  had  not  the  least  intention  of 
being  made  into  a  bishop.  He  was  glad,  he  said,  to 
find  the  Chancellor  and  the  Prince  so  well  disposed 
to  him.  More  signal  evidence  could  not  have  been 
given  either  by  Pope  or  Archduke  that  they  did  not 
mean  to  be  beaten  by  the  reactionary  party  in  the 
Church  than  the  proposal  to  promote  Erasmus  to 
episcopal  rank  in  the  face  of  so  furious  a  clamour. 
He  implied,  however,  that  he  would  be  more  than  sat- 
isfied by  a  less  onerous  promotion ;  and,  in  fact,  a 
considerable  additional  pension  was  promised  him 
under  the  single  condition  that  he  should  reside  in 
the  Archduke's  dominions.  Charles  wished  to  take 
him  into  Spain  in  his  own  suite.  But  this,  too,  would 
not  answer  for  the  work  which  he  had  to  do.  Lou- 
vain  was  thought  of  for  him,  and  it  was  not  at  first 
to  his  taste.  Writing  to  his  friend  Ammonius,  he 
says :  — 

At  Louvain  I  should  be  the  maid-of-all-work  to  the 
University.  It  would  be  "Amend  this  poem,"  "Cor- 
rect this  epistle,"  "  Edit  this  or  that  edict."  Not  a 
soul  in  the  place  would  do  me  any  good.  I  should 
have  the  theologians  on  my  back ;  and  I  regret  to  say 


Lecture  IX.  181 

I  do  not  love  those  gentry.  One  of  them  has  begun 
at  me  already,  and  I  have  the  wolf  by  the  ears.  I 
cannot  crush  him,  and  I  cannot  let  him  go.  He  flat- 
ters me  to  my  face.  He  abuses  me  behind  my  back. 
He  professes  friendship.  He  is  my  enemy  at  heart. 
He  belongs  to  a  class  of  men  who  can  make  us  neither 
better  nor  wiser,  but  can  worry  our  lives  out. 

The  edition  of  Jerome  was  being  printed  at  Bale 
by  the  famous  Froben.  Erasmus  had  to  go  there  to 
superintend  the  work,  which  was  to  be  dedicated  to 
the  Pope.  He  intended,  if  he  conld,  to  go  on  after- 
wards to  Rome,  and  thank  Leo  in  person  for  the 
service  which  had  been  rendered  to  him.  In  the 
midst  of  his  printing  he  was  making  time  to  write  an 
"Educational  Institute"  for  Prince  Charles.  Most 
of  all  he  was  taken  up  with  the  battle  of  the  lan- 
guages, and  the  attacks,  too  successful,  by  the  monas- 
tic enemies  of  Greek  on  his  friend  Reuchlin,  which 
were  echoing  over  Germany.  Rome,  which  had  pro- 
tected Erasmus,  might  protect  Reuchlin.  "  Proximus 
ardet  Ucalegon."  If  Reuchlin  was  overwhelmed,  Eras- 
mus might  be  the  next  victim  himself.  Anxiously  he 
wrote  to  the  cardinals  :  — 

What  a  disgrace  will  it  be  (he  said)  if  a  man  so 
learned,  so  accomplished  as  Reuchlin,  who  has  made 
the  world  richer  by  his  presence  in  it,  is  to  be  sacri- 
ficed in  the  autumn  of  his  life,  when  he  has  deserved 
only  praise  and  honour.  What  a  stir  is  raised  about 
him,  and  all  for  nothing.  I  can  only  say^  that  if  a 
man  will  examine  Jerome  in  the  same  spirit  which 
they  are  showing  about  Reuchlin,  the  theologians  will 
find  plenty  in  him  which  they  will  not  like  the  taste 
of.  All  the  country  is  indignant.  We  look  to  you  at 
Rome  to  save  him. 

I  have  mentioned  Reuchlin  before,  but  you  will 
wish  for  a  word  or  two  more  about  him. 


182  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

lie  \v;is  among-  the  first  of  the  distinguished  schol- 
ars who  introduced  the  study  of  Hebrew  and  Greek 
into  Germany,  and  was  thus,  in  fact,  the  father  of 
modern  Bible  criticism.  He  was  born  at  Baden  in 
1455,  and  was  twelve  years  older  than  Erasmus.  He 
came  early  under  the  notice  of  the  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian, who  assisted  and  encouraged  him.  The  jeal- 
ousy of  Hebrew  among  the  clergy  extended  to  the 
Hebrew  race.  A  Jew-baiting  cry  was  easily  raised, 
and  the  orthodox  German  Church  began  to  demand 
through  the  mouth  of  a  convert  (Pfeffercorn)  that 
all  Hebrew  books  except  the  Bible  should  be  burned. 
Reuchlin  induced  Maximilian  to  suspend  so  absurd 
a  proposal.  The  Dominicans,  who  hated  Reuchlin 
already,  turned  upon  him,  denounced  a  passage  in  one 
of  his  writings  as  heretical  to  the  Inquisition,  and  the 
Inquisition,  as  it  could  not  burn  the  Talmud,  was 
willing  to  take  Reuchlin  in  exchange.  Young  Ger- 
many, led  by  Ulrich  von  Hutten,  swore  that  if  Reuch- 
lin was  burnt,  the  Church  should  smoke  for  it.  The 
Emperor  could  not  afford  to  quarrel  with  the  Inquisi- 
tion. Reuchlin  was  suspended  from  his  office  and 
imprisoned,  while  the  question  what  was  to  be  done 
with  him  was  referred  to  the  Pope.  The  Pope  de- 
layed his  answer  till  the  next  year,  when  Reuchlin 
was  forgotten  in  the  storm  of  the  Reformation. 
Meanwhile  he  was  in  imminent  danger  of  the  stake, 
and  it  is  to  Erasmus's  credit  that  he  was  willing  to 
run  risks  in  Reuchlin's  defence  which  he  was  after- 
wards not  the  least  inclined  to  run  for  Luther. 

In  supporting  Reuchlin  (he  wrote  to  Cardinal 
Raphael *)  you  will  earn  the  gratitude  of  every  man 
of  letters  in  Germany.  It  is  to  him  really  that  Ger- 
many owes  such  knowledge  as  it  has  of  Greek  and 

1  J£p.  clxviii. 


Lecture  IX.  183 

Hebrew.  He  is  a  learned,  accomplished  man,  re- 
spected by  the  Emperor,  honoured  among  his  own 
people,  and  blameless  in  life  and  character.  All 
Europe  is  crying  shame  that  so  excellent  a  person 
should  be  harrassed  by  a  detestable  prosecution,  and 
all  for  a  matter  as  absurd  as  the  ass's  shadow  of 
the  proverb.  The  princes  are  at  peace  again.  Why 
should  men  of  education  and  knowledge  be  still  stab- 
bing each  other  with  poisoned  pens?  Julius  II. 
rescued  another  friend  of  ours  from  a  prosecution  of 
the  same  kind,  and  silenced  his  accusers.  Anyone 
who  will  give  us  Reuchlin  back  safe  and  sound  will 
deserve  all  our  blessings. 

The  Roman  visit  had  to  be  abandoned.  The  inces- 
sant reprints  of  his  books,  the  attacks  upon  his  New 
Testament,  and  the  corrections  and  additions  found 
necessary  obliged  Erasmus  to  remain  on  the  spot. 
He  had  to  make  Louvain  his  head-quarters,  within 
easy  reach  of  Brussels,  and  for  several  years  his  time 
was  divided  between  Louvain  and  Froben's  printing 
establishment  at  Bale. 

From  Louvain  he  writes  in  1517  to  his  friend  Pirk- 
heimer,  while  the  Reuchlin  controversy  was  still  rag- 
ing : *  — 

I  live  here  at  great  expense,  but  I  must  remain  for 
a  few  months  longer  to  finish  the  work  which  I  have 
in  hand,  and  see  what  comes  of  the  Chancellor's  pro- 
mises. I  am  busy  with  a  new  edition  of  my  New 
Testament.  The  first  was  done  too  hastily.  I  am 
making  a  fresh  book  of  it.  I  am  delighted  that  you 
have  stood  up  for  Reuchlin.  Poor  Reuchlin  !  What 
a  fight  he  is  having,  and  with  what  enemies!  The 
Pope  himself  is  afraid  to  provoke  the  monks.  Alex- 
ander VI.  used  to  say  that  it  was  less  dangerous  to 
provoke  the  most  powerful  prince  in  Europe  than 
offend  the  meanest  of  the  mendicant  friars.  Those 
wretches  in  the  disguise  of  poverty  are  the  tyrants  of 

1  Ep.  cclxxiv.,  abridged. 


184  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

the  Christian  world,  and  a  precious  leader  they  have 
in  their  assaults  on  Reuchlin  — a  fool  with  a  forehead 
of  brass,  and  himself  more  than  half  a  Jew.  The 
devil  himself,  the  eternal  enemy  of  Christ,  could 
devise  no  fitter  instrument  to  disturb  the  peace  of 
Christendom  in  the  name  of  religion  than  such  a  child 
of  hell  disguised  as  an  angel  of  light.  It  is  a  shame 
to  Europe.  Here  is  a  man  who  deserves  immortal 
honour  reduced  to  crossing  swords  with  a  monster 
whose  name  would  pollute  my  papers.  I  believe  the 
creature  was  only  baptized  that  he  might  the  better 
poison  people's  minds  —  a  veritable  Satan,  Diabolus, 
slanderer,  going  among  foolish  women  and  canting 
about  heresy  and  the  need  of  defending  the  faith. 

What  is  to  happen  if  such  an  impure  beast  as  this 
is  allowed  to  rage  against  men  of  learning  and  repu- 
tation, and  to  force  them  on  their  defence?  Believe 
me,  it  will  not  end  here.  Mischief  will  come  of  it. 
A  small  spark  will  kindle  a  large  fire.  The  bishops 
ought  to  stir  themselves.  The  Emperor  should  look 
to  it.     Such  a  viper  ought  not  to  be  tolerated. 

Reuchlin's  friends  were  not  idle.  The  "  Epistola3 
obscurorum  Virorum  "  made  Pfeffercorn  the  jest  of 
Europe.  Other  satires  followed.  The  air  was  thick 
with  libels  on  the  monks.  The  "  Epistola3 "  were 
anonymous.  The  monks  insisted  that  Erasmus  must 
have  written  them.  Only  Erasmus,  the  Antichrist, 
the  heretic,  the  schismatic,  was  capable  of  so  horrible 
an  enormity.  Erasmus,  safe  under  the  protection  of 
the  Emperor  and  the  Holy  See,  left  them  to  snarl, 
and  finished  his  "Jerome,"  which  he  proceeded  to  lay 
at  the  feet  of  Leo,  with  a  request  to  be  allowed  to 
dedicate  his  labours  to  him.  He  knew  how  to  flatter, 
and  he  was  really  under  deep  obligations  to  Leo. 

The  greatest  princes  (he  said)  might  tremble  at 
writing  to  the  Pope,  who  was  as  far  above  other  men 
as  other  men  were  above  the  beasts  of  the  field.  But 
the  kindness  of  Leo  X.  gave  him  courage. 


Lecture  IX.  185 

Men  of  letters  praised  God  for  such  a  pastor.  The 
Medici  were  the  immortal  patrons  of  culture  and 
knowledge.  Leo  was  the  greatest  of  them  all  —  the 
perfect  man  of  Plato  —  gold  tried  in  the  fire  —  born 
to  triumph  over  all  difficulties.  When  Leo  was  raised 
to  the  throne  the  iron  age  became  golden.  War 
ceased  in  all  lands.  Princes  laid  down  their  swords. 
The  wounds  of  Christendom  were  healed,  and  not  a 
scar  remained.  Leo  was  Hercules,  Ulysses,  Marius, 
Alexander,  the  lion  of  the  tribe  of  Judah.  Literature 
was  bound  to  celebrate  his  praises.  Erasmus  desired 
to  do  his  part  to  keep  such  virtues  perennially  bloom- 
ing. Too  weak  in  himself  for  such  a  glorious  task, 
he  might  hope  to  achieve  it  by  connecting  Leo  with  a 
name  already  immortal  —  the  name  of  Jerome,  the 
greatest  of  Latin  theologians.  Jerome  alone  of  the 
whole  of  them  deserved  to  be  called  a  theologian  ;  all 
others  were  dwarfed  at  his  side,  and  only  Greece  had 
produced  his  equal.  As  he  was  the  worthiest  of  the 
Latin  Fathers,  so  his  writings  had  been  left  in  the 
worst  condition ;  no  intelligible  meaning  was  to  be 
had  out  of  them. 

Erasmus  had  compared  the  MSS.,  corrected  texts, 
exposed  and  expelled  interpolated  passages.  St.  Jer- 
ome had  been  born  again.  The  credit  was  not  all 
due  to  Erasmus.  Reuchlin  had  opened  the  way. 
But,  such  as  it  was,  the  work  was  completed,  and  was 
humbly  offered  to  Leo's  acceptance.1 

Leo  graciously  complied.  He  had  sanctioned  the 
New  Testament.  He  now  allowed  his  name  to  ap- 
pear on  the  title-page  of  the  "  Jerome  "  as  Erasmus's 
avowed  patron.  He  even  wrote  to  Henry  VIII.,  rec- 
ommending Erasmus  for  an  English  bishopric.  The 
author  of  "  Moria,"  who  had  mocked  and  insulted 
the  religious  orders,  appeared  before  the  world  with 
the  Pope's  name  beside  his  own,  in  the  sunlight  of  pon- 

1  Ep.  clxxiii. 


180  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

tifical  favour.  What  wonder  if  Erasmus  now  believed 
that  a  peaceful  Reformation  was  at  hand,  when  such 
open  favours  had  been  shown  to  himself ;  that  Pope 
and  princes  and  the  wisdom  of  the  laity  were  about  to 
make  an  end  of  ecclesiastical  abuses,  clear  out  the 
monks,  silence  the  jargon  of  scholasticism,  and  restore 
the  Church  of  the  Apostles  with  Scripture  for  its 
foundation !  You  can  trace  his  expectations  in  a 
letter  to  Fabricius  Capito,  a  celebrated  preacher  at 
Bale.1 

I  am  now  (he  says)  fifty-one  years  old,  and  may  be 
expected  to  feel  that  I  have  lasted  long  enough.  I  am 
not  enamoured  of  life,  but  it  is  worth  while  to  con- 
tinue a  little  longer  with  such  a  prospect  of  a  golden 
age.  We  have  a  Leo  X.  for  Pope;  a  French  king- 
content  to  make  peace  for  the  sake  of  religion  when 
he  had  means  to  continue  the  war ;  a  Maximilian  for 
ernperor,  old  and  eager  for  peace ;  Henry  VIII. ,  king 
of  England,  also  on  the  side  of  peace ;  the  Arch- 
duke Charles  "  divinae  cujusdam  indolis  adolescens." 
Learning  is  springing  up  all  round  out  of  the  soil ; 
languages,  physics,  mathematics,  each  department 
thriving.  Even  theology  is  showing  signs  of  improv- 
ment.  Theology,  so  far,  has  been  cultivated  only  by 
avowed  enemies  of  knowledge.  The  pretence  has 
been  to  protect  the  minds  of  the  laity  from  disturb- 
ance. All  looks  brighter  now.  Three  languages  are 
publicly  taught  in  the  schools.  The  most  learned  and 
least  malicious  of  the  theologians  themselves  lend  their 
hand  to  the  work.  I  myself,  insignificant  I,  have 
contributed  something.  I  have  at  least  stirred  the 
bile  of  those  who  would  not  have  the  world  grow 
wiser,  and  only  fools  now  snarl  at  me.  One  of  them 
said  in  a  sermon  lately,  in  a  lamentable  voice,  that  all 
was  now  over  with  the  Christian  faith.  There  were 
persons  who  were  talking  of  mending  religion,  and 
even  mending  the  Lord's  Prayer.     An  Englishman 

1  Ep.  eevii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  IX.  187 

clamours  that  I  profess  to  be  wiser  than  Jerome,  and 
have  altered  his  text,  when  all  I  have  done  has  been 
to  restore  his  text. 

But  the  clouds  are  passing  away.  My  share  in  the 
work  must  be  near  finished.  But  you  are  young  and 
strong  ;  you  have  the  first  pulpit  in  Bale  ;  your  name 
is  without  spot  —  no  one  dares  to  reflect  upon  Fabri- 
cius  ;  you  are  prudent,  too,  and  know  when  to  be 
silent ;  you  have  yourself  experienced  the  disorder, 
and  understand  the  treatment  of  it.  I  do  not  want 
the  popular  theology  to  be  abolished.  I  want  it  en- 
riched and  enlarged  from  earlier  sources.  When  the 
theologians  know  more  of  Holy  Scripture  they  will 
find  their  consequence  undiminished,  perhaps  in- 
creased. All  promises  well,  so  far  as  I  see.  My 
chief  fear  is  that  with  the  revival  of  Greek  literature 
there  may  be  a  revival  of  paganism.  There  are 
Christians  who  are  Christians  only  in  name,  and  are 
Gentiles  at  heart;  and,  again,  the  study  of  Hebrew 
may  lead  to  Judaism,  which  would  be  worse  still.  I 
wish  there  could  be  an  end  of  scholastic  subtleties,  or, 
if  not  an  end,  that  they  could  be  thrust  into  a  second 
place,  and  Christ  be  taught  plainly  and  simply.  The 
reading  of  the  Bible  and  the  early  Fathers  will  have 
this  effect.  Doctrines  are  taught  now  which  have  no 
affinity  with  Christ  and  only  darken  our  eyes. 

Eeform  was  in  the  air  —  reform,  or  some  more 
dangerous  change.  What  Erasmus  wished,  what  Leo 
and  the  Cardinals  wished,  what  Warham  and  More 
and  Colet  and  Fisher  wished  in  England,  is  toler- 
ably clear.  They  saw  popular  Christianity  degraded 
into  a  superstition  ;  the  clergy  loose  and  ignorant ; 
practical  religion  a  blind  idolatry ;  the  laity  the 
victims  of  the  mendicant  friars,  who  enslaved  them 
through  the  confessional ;  theology,  a  body  of  dog- 
matic propositions  developed  into  an  unintelligible 
scholasticism,   without    practical    bearing   upon   life. 


188  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Wise  men  desired  to  see  superstition  corrected,  the 
Scriptures  made  the  rule  of  faith  and  practice,  the 
friars  brought  to  their  bearings  and  perhaps  sup- 
pressed, the  clergy  generally  disciplined  and  educated. 
They  had  no  wish  to  touch  the  Church  or  diminish  its 
splendour.  The  Church  was,  or  might  be,  a  magnifi- 
cent instrument  of  human  cultivation,  and  might 
grow  with  the  expansion  of  knowledge. 

Something  of  this  kind  was,  or  seemed  then  to  be, 
possible.  But  the  devil  is  not  expelled  by  rose-water. 
A  few  months  after  this  letter  was  written  the  sky 
was  black  with  thunderclouds,  and  a  storm  had  opened 
which  raged  for  two  long  centuries.  Mankind  are 
not  relieved  so  easily  of  the  consequences  of  their  own 
follies. 


LECTURE  X. 

Fortune  appeared  to  have  changed  her  face  to 
Erasmus  after  the  publication  of  the  New  Testament 
and  the  "  Encomium  Moriae."  Relieved  of  his  mo- 
nastic vow,  favoured  by  his  own  government,  and 
applauded  by  the  general  voice  of  Europe,  with  suffi- 
cient money  besides  and  with  the  full  command  of  his 
own  time,  he  had  conquered  a  position  for  himself  in 
which  he  might  now  pursue  calmly  the  great  objects 
of  his  life,  and  achieve  the  intellectual  regeneration 
of  the  Church  under  the  segis  of  Pope  Leo  himself. 
The  great  powers  of  Europe  contended  for  the  pos- 
session of  him.  Henry  VIII.  and  Wolsey  made 
fresh  efforts  to  recover  him  to  England.  The  Pacto- 
lus  which  he  had  looked  for  six  years  before  and  had 
not  found  was  now  ready  to  flow :  a  fine  house  in  Lon- 
don with  a  handsome  income  was  placed  at  his  dispo- 
sition if  he  chose  to  accept  it.  Francis  I.,  among  his 
first  acts  on  succeeding  to  the  crown,  invited  Erasmus 
back  to  Paris.  Leo  was  eager  to  receive  him  again 
at  Rome.  Minor  magnates  in  Church  and  State 
would  have  secured  if  they  could  so  splendid  an  orna- 
ment to  their  courts,  while  at  Brussels  he  was  wel- 
comed so  warmly  by  the  young  Archduke  Charles 
and  his  brother  Ferdinand  that,  if  he  desired  prefer- 
ment, it  seemed  that  he  had  but  to  ask  and  to  have. 

In  October  1516  he  writes  from  Brussels  to  Peter 
Giles,  who  had  been  his  pupil,  in  paternal  good-hu- 
mour, advising  him  to  be  regular  at  his  work,  to  keep  a 
journal,  to  remember  that  life  was  short,  to  study  Plato 


190  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

and  Seneca,  love  his  wife,  and  disregard  the  world's 
opinion  —  advice  which  indicates  at  least  the  compos- 
ure of  mind  of  the  adviser.     For  himself  he  says  :  — 

What  others  sweat  and  toil  for  has  come  to  me  in 
my  sleep.  The  Catholic  King-  [Charles,  now  king  of 
Spain]  had  almost  made  a  bishop  of  me,  not  in  parti- 
bus  infidelium,)  but  in  Sicily.  There  had  been  a  mis- 
take, however,  and  I  am  glad  of  it.  It  appeared  that 
the  nomination  belonged  to  the  Pope,  and  the  King 
could  do  no  more  than  write  to  him  to  confirm  the 
appointment.  This  happened  while  I  was  at  work  in 
libraries  at  Antwerp.  The  Chancellor  sent  for  me 
hither,  and  I  obeyed  more  readily  than  I  would  have 
done  had  I  known  the  cause  of  my  summons.  I  was 
received  with  congratulations  from  those  who  were  in 
the  secret.  I  laughed,  and  told  them  they  were  los- 
ing their  labours.  I  would  not  change  my  freedom 
for  the  best  bishopric  in  the  world. 

Erasmus,  however,  was  a  thin-skinned  mortal.  It 
was  the  nature  of  him  to  heat  the  water  wherever  he 
was.  Pope,  kings,  and  bishops  might  throw  their 
shield  over  him,  but  he  had  provoked  the  implacable 
enmity  of  the  religious  orders.  In  addition  to  his 
own  offences,  he  had  rushed  to  the  front  in  defence  of 
Reuchlin.  They  were  wise  in  their  generation.  They 
had  recognised  that  Erasmus  was  more  dangerous  to 
them  than  a  thousand  Reuehlins.  If  they  could  crush 
Erasmus  they  would  make  short  work  of  Reuchlin 
and  Yon  Hutten  and  young  Germany ;  and  the  reli- 
gious orders  were  terribly  powerful.  They  were 
amenable  to  no  authority  but  the  Pope's,  and  the 
Popes  themselves  were  afraid  of  provoking  them. 

Sir  Thomas  More  had  been  sent  across  to  the  Low 
Countries  to  represent  England  at  the  settlement  of 
the  peace.  He  had  not  liked  his  occupation.  Priests 
who  had  neither  wives  nor  children  he  thought  were 


Lecture  X.  191 

the  fittest  persons  for  ambassadors.  Their  expenses 
were  paid  by  their  Governments,  and  if  they  did  well 
they  could  be  rewarded  with  bishoprics.  Laymen  had 
no  such  prospects.  He  himself  had  to  maintain  a 
double  establishment ;  and  though  he  was  the  most 
generous  of  masters,  he  had  never  been  able  to  per- 
suade his  people  at  home  to  be  economical  in  his 
absence.  He  had  been  able,  however,  to  discover 
while  at  Cambray  that  a  conspiracy  had  been  formed 
among  the  monks  at  Louvain  to  make  a  general 
attack  upon  Erasmus's  work,  and  make  it  impossible 
for  his  own  or  any  other  Government  any  longer  to 
encourage  him. 

They  mean  (More  wrote  to  him)  to  have  an  exami- 
nation of  your  writings,  with  the  worst  intentions 
towards  you.  Be  cautious,  therefore,  and  correct  any 
faults  that  you  are  conscious  of.  You  will  ask  who 
the  parties  are.  I  fear  to  tell  you,  lest  you  be  fright- 
ened by  such  antagonists.  The  object  is  to  expose 
your  mistakes.  They  have  divided  your  works  among 
them ;  each  is  to  take  a  special  part.  You  see  your 
danger,  so  collect  your  forces.  The  resolution  was 
taken  at  a  supper  party,  where  they  had  drunk  more 
wine  than  was  good  for  them. 

Erasmus,  like  More,  was  at  first  rather  amused 
than  alarmed. 

I  hear  (he  writes  to  Ammonius)  that  those  fellows 
at  Louvain  want  to  have  my  writings  examined  in  the 
School  of  Theology  there.  They  will  have  work  cut 
out  for  them  for  two  years,  and  the  examiners  must 
learn  some  Greek  and  Latin,  of  which  at  present  they 
know  nothing.  I  think  it  will  go  off  in  wind.  The 
best  people  there  are  for  me,  and  some,  indeed,  of  the 
most  distinguished  of  the  theologians  themselves. 

The  storm  proved  more  angry  and  more  dangerous 
than  either  More  or  Erasmus  expected. 


L92  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

You  will  hardly  believe  (Erasmus  writes  a  little 
later  to  Ammonius)  how  near  I  escaped  being  burnt, 
the  divines  at  Louvain  were  in  such  a  rage  at  me. 
They  petitioned  the  King  and  the  Pope  to  throw  me 
over.  1  went  to  Louvain  myself  and  scattered  the 
smoke.  The  great  people  and  the  literati  broke  up 
the  conspiracy  at  home,  but  I  still  wait  for  the  decree 
of  the  Roman  oracle.  If  I  do  not  get  a  final  decision 
in  my  favour  there  is  an  end  of  Erasmus,  and  nothing 
will  remain  but  to  write  his  epitaph.  I  had  sooner 
have  made  two  journeys  to  Rome  than  be  tortured  by 
this  delay. 

There  was  nothing  to  be  afraid  of  from  Rome. 
Leo  decided  all  the  points,  whatever  they  were  that 
were  put  before  him,  in  Erasmus's  favour,  and  the 
Louvain  theologians  were  left  to  their  own  pens  and 
their  own  voices,  which,  it  must  be  allowed,  they  knew 
how  to  use.  Erasmus  found  them  abundant  material. 
The  edition  of  the  New  Testament  was  followed  by 
paraphrases  on  the  various  books,  giving  life  and 
meaning  to  a  narrative  which  had  been  trampled  into 
barrenness  by  mechanical  repetition  or  conventional 
interpretation.  The  Paraphrases  were  received  with 
enthusiasm,  and  were  read  in  churches  by  the  more 
enlightened  clergy.  Thanks,  praises,  congratulations 
rained  upon  their  author ;  but,  as  admiration  swelled 
on  one  side,  fury  was  as  loud  upon  the  other.  He 
had  deliberately  stirred  a  nest  of  hornets,  and  he 
smarted  under  the  inevitable  sting.  His  letters  are 
full  of  complaints  against  the  blockheads  who  railed 
at  him  in  their  sermons.  Hypocrites  he  calls  them, 
who  slandered  better  men  than  themselves,  as  if  their 
occupation  was  calumny  and  lies.  Silence  them  he 
could  not,  for  they  commanded  the  pulpits,  and  they 
flitted  and  buzzed  about  him  like  bats  and  mosqui- 
toes.   In  Louvain,  where  he  was,  his  enemies  swarmed 


Lecture  X.  193 

the  thickest.  He  might  crush  this  venomous  insect  or 
that ;  but  they  were  swarming  in  clouds,  and  he  was 
dealing  with  a  foe  which  was  as  the  air,  invulnerable. 
He  knew  his  danger  when  he  provoked  it.  He  had 
attacked  the  monks,  and  the  monks  were  ubiquitous, 
so  that  it  would  be  useless  to  fly.  There  was  no  spot 
on  the  Continent  where  he  could  escape  from  their 
resentment.  In  England  he  had  pined  for  Rome,  or, 
if  not  for  Rome,  for  a  sight  of  the  smoke  from  the 
chimneys  of  his  own  land.  He  had  left  England 
meaning  never  to  see  it  again.  He  now  looked  back 
upon  it  with  passionate  regret. 

Oh,  splendid  England !  (he  writes  from  Louvain  to 
his  friend  Dr.  Pace x)  —  Oh,  splendid  England,  home 
and  citadel  of  virtue  and  learning !  How  do  I  con- 
gratulate you  on  having  such  a  prince  to  rule  you, 
and  your  prince  on  subjects  which  throw  such  lustre 
on  his  reign !  No  land  in  all  the  world  is  like  Eng- 
land. In  no  country  woidd  I  love  better  to  spend  my 
days.  Intellect  and  honesty  thrive  in  England  under 
the  Prince's  favour.  In  England  there  is  no  masked 
sanctimoniousness,  and  the  empty  babble  of  educated 
ignorance  is  driven  out  or  put  to  silence.  In  this 
place  I  am  torn  by  envenomed  teeth.  Preachers  go 
about  screaming  lies  about  me  among  idiots  as  foolish 
as  themselves. 

Again,  to  Bishop  Fisher  : 2  — 

The  war  is  carried  on  cliarta  de?itata;  each  side 
bites  in  earnest  with  purpose  to  hurt,  and  the  hooded 
sycophants  are  at  the  bottom  of  it,  who  call  them- 
selves the  only  champions  of  Gospel  truth. 

He  thought,  of  flight. 

What  shall  I  do?  Whither  shall  I  go?  To  Ven- 
ice ?     To    Bale  ?     Not  to  Germany ;  the    hot   rooms 

1  Ep.  cc-xli. 

2  Ep.  cxxxiii.,  second  series. 


191  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

and  stoves  forbid  Germany.  The  banditti  forbid  it, 
the  plague  forbids  it.  Distance  and  summer  heats 
arc  against  Italy.  I  am  overwhelmed  with  invita- 
tions. The  Archbishop  of  Mentz  wishes  for  me,  the 
Bishops  of  Maestricht,  Liege,  Bayeux  wish  for  me. 
The  King  of  England  invites  me  back,  and  his 
Achates  the  Cardinal  of  York.  I  have  so  many 
adorers  that  I  can  scarce  reply  to  their  letters.  I 
have  written,  as  you  advise  me,  to  our  Imperial  Chan- 
cellor, and  it  is  he  who  must  decide  for  me. 

He  was  still  sanguine  that  better  times  were  com- 
ing.    He  adds  :  — 

You  will  soon  see  a  new  age  among  us.  The  Para- 
phrases are  universally  praised,  and  it  is  something  to 
have  written  a  book  o#  which  that  can  be  said.  They 
will  have  done  at  last  with  stoning  Erasmus,  and  will 
take  to  kissing  him. 

Not  the  least  of  his  troubles  came  from  the  vio- 
lence of  his  own  and  Reuchlin's  friends  in  Germany. 
The  "  Epistolae  obscurorum  Virorum "  was  but  one 
of  many  anonymous  publications  poured  out  by  Von 
Hutten  and  the  young  passionate  champions  of  light 
in  defence  of  Reuchlin,  and  heaping  ridicule  on  his 
prosecutors.  Erasmus  being  the  special  object  of  the 
monks'  hatred,  they  were  all  attributed  to  his  own 
pen  or  his  own  instigation.  He  had  to  publish  a  de- 
fence of  himself,  which  he  detested  doing.  He  tried, 
but  tried  in  vain,  to  convince  these  hot-spirited  youths 
that  they  were  hurting  their  own  cause  by  offending 
the  civil  power  and  the  bishops,  who  would  be  their 
best  protectors  if  they  would  keep  their  invectives 
within  the  limits  of  legitimate  satire.  He  was  stum- 
bling over  the  roots  of  the  trees  which  he  had  himself 
planted,  and  he  did  not  like  it  at  all. 

The  "  Epistolae  "  (he  writes1  in  August,  1517)  do 

1  To  Csesarius,  Ep.  clx.,  second  series. 


Lecture  X.  195 

not  please  me.  I  might  have  been  amused  by  the 
wit,  but  the  example  is  pernicious.  I  love  a  jest,  but 
I  have  no  taste  for  ribaldry,  and  if  play  the  fool  they 
must  they  have  no  right  to  bring  my  name  into  the 
business  and  ruin  the  work  of  my  life.  They  are  not 
only  ill  friends  to  themselves,  but  they  bring  disgrace 
on  the  cause  of  learning.  It  is  now  said  in  Cologne 
that  I  wrote  the  libel  on  Pope  Julius.  I  am  amazed 
that  such  a  production  should  be  attributed  to  me.  If 
it  had  been  mine  it  would  at  least  have  been  in  better 
Latin.  I  might  mock  a  little  in  "  Moria,"  but  I  drew 
no  blood  and  never  hurt  any  man's  good  name.  I 
satirised  manners,  not  individuals.  Do,  if  you  can, 
keep  such  stuff  out  of  the  press.  Everyone  who 
knows  me  knows  how  I  disliked  the  book  and  how 
unworthy  I  thought  it. 

Pfeffercorn,  the  conceited  Jew  who  had  led  the 
attack  on  Reuchlin,  had  been  the  tool  of  stronger 
heads  behind  him.  But  he  had  stood  forward  in  the 
front.  His  name  alone  was  a  butt  for  the  satire  of 
coarser  wits.  Erasmus  had  to  notice  the  man,  but 
felt  disgraced  in  touching  him. 

It  is  right  (he  again  writes  to  Csesarius)  for  the  de- 
fenders of  learning  to  support  Reuchliu,  but  there  was 
no  need  for  them  to  point  their  lances  at  that  pestilent 
trumpeter  of  the  Furies,  that  vicar  of  Satan,  with  the 
theologians  in  masks  behind  him.  He  is  a  fellow 
made  of  malevolence.  To  denounce  him  is  not  to  con- 
quer him,  for  he  has  no  shame,  and  he  counts  the  at- 
tacks upon  him  as  a  distinction.  Pie  pretends  to  de- 
fend the  Gospel,  and  he  is  destroying  Christianity.  If 
his  body  be  examined,  may  I  be  hanged  if  a  Jew  is  not 
found  inside  him,  or  six  hundred  Jews.  He  is  a  bad 
Jew  and  a  worse  Christian.  Conflicts  with  so  vile  a 
monster  are  better  avoided.  Conquerors  or  conquered, 
those  who  meddle  with  him  will  be  spattered  with  mud. 
I  would  rather  see  the  whole  Old  Testament  abolished, 


10t>  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

so  we  preserved  the  New,  than  have  the  peace  of  the 
world  broken  for  the  hooks  of  the  Jews.1 

One  has  heard  of  Satan  rebuking  sin  ;  Erasmus  com- 
plaining of  his  friends'  strong  language  was  something 
in  the  same  position.  Two  months  later  he  writes  on 
the  same  subject  to  Pirkheimer :  2  — 

No  mortal  hates  these  quarrels  more  than  I  do.  I 
hate  even  my  own  "  Apology,"  which  I  was  forced  into 
writing.  I  am  ashamed  that  men  of  reputation  should 
be  driven  into  crossing  swords  with  such  a  monster,  or 
dirting  paper  with  the  name  of  him.  No  wise  man 
doubts  that  Reuchlin  has  been  abominably  used,  but  I 
would  rather  hold  my  tongue  than  bandy  words  with 
swarms  of  wasps  who  carry  poison  in  their  tongues. 
Innocence  needs  no  defence.  It  was  enough  for 
Reuchlin  to  have  all  good  men  on  his  side.  I  wonder 
that  the  magistrates  and  bishops  permit  such  a  venom- 
ous wretch  to  rage  as  he  does,  and  that  no  Hercules 
is  found  to  drag  this  new  Cacus  into  gaol.  That  is  the 
way  in  which  such  ruffians  ought  to  be  dealt  with. 

Erasmus  might  deny  his  responsibility  for  "  Julius  " 
or  the  "Epistoke;"  but  he  had  published  "Moria" 
under  his  own  name,  and  on  "  Moria  "  the  monks  fast- 
ened next  —  very  much,  it  is  curious  to  observe,  to  the 
surprise  of  Erasmus  and  even  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  to 
whom  "  Moria  "  seemed  no  more  than  an  innocent  piece 
of  satire.  The  monks  knew  better  ;  they  would  have 
abandoned  their  cause  if  they  had  allowed  a  stab  so 
terribly  effective  to  pass  unresented.  The  challenge 
was  taken  up  by  a  Carmelite  professor  at  Louvain 
named  Egmondanus  —  Egmond,  I  suppose  —  who  for 
many  years  was  to  be  a  thorn  in  Erasmus's  side. 

1  "Malim  ego  incolumi  Novo  Testamento  vel  totum  Vetus  aboleri 
quani  Christianorum  paeem  ob  Judaeorum  libros  reseindi . "  —  Ep.  ecii., 
second  scries,  abridged. 

2  Ep.  cciii.,  second  series. 


Lecture  X.  197 

I  am  not  surprised  (More  writes  to  his  friend  x) 
that  this  little  black  Carmelite  hates  you,  but  I  could 
hardly  have  believed  that  he  would  attack  "  Moria," 
when  he  is  himself  Moria  incarnate.  Insolent  ass, 
to  be  ashamed  of  his  own  mistress.  He  may  hide  him- 
self in  the  lion's  skin,  but  he  will  not  be  able  to  hide 
his  ears. 

I  could  not  have  dreamt  (writes  Erasmus  himself) 
that  "  Moria  "  would  have  provoked  so  much  anger.  I 
abhor  quarrels,  and  would  have  suppressed  the  thing 
could  I  have  foreseen  the  effect  it  would  produce.  But 
why  should  monks  and  theologians  think  themselves 
so  much  injured  ?  Do  they  recognise  their  portraits  ? 
The  Pope  read  "  Moria  "  and  laughed  ;  as  he  finished 
it,  all  he  said  was,  "  Here  is  our  old  friend  Erasmus." 
And  yet  the  Popes  are  handled  there  as  freely  as  any- 
one else.  I  am  no  evil  speaker.  Had  I  seriously 
wished  to  describe  monks  and  theologians  as  they  really 
are  "  Moria  "  would  seem  a  mild  performance  by  the 
side  of  what  I  should  then  have  written.  They  say  it 
is  being  read  in  schools.  I  had  not  heard  of  this. 
There  is  nothing  in  it,  however,  which  can  injure 
young  people.  Why  you  should  fear  that  it  may  lead 
to  a  disregard  of  religion  is  a  mystery  to  me.  Will 
religion  vanish  if  I  ridicule  superstition  ?  Would  that 
what  is  now  called  religion  deserved  to  be  so  called ! 
Would  that  priests  and  congregations  followed  the 
teaching  of  Christ  as  faithfully  as  they  now  show  their 
neglect  of  it !  Religious  houses  are  spread  over  Chris- 
tendom. I  do  not  condemn  what  is  called  a  religious 
life  in  itself;  but  ask  yourself  what  trace  of  piety 
is  now  to  be  found  in  such  houses  beyond  forms  and 
ceremonies,  how  worse  than  worldly  almost  all  of 
them  are.  I  have  blackened  no  individual's  name. 
I  have  mocked  only  at  open  and  notorious  vice. 

So  matters  were  standing  with  Erasmus  himself  and 
with  Europe  generally  in  the  momentous  year  1517. 
His  writings  were  flying  over  Catholic  Christendom 
1  Ep.  cxlviii.,  second  serie9. 


198  Life  and  Letter's  of  Erasmus. 

and  were  devoured  by  everyone  who  could  read.  The 
laity,  waking  from  the  ignorance  of  ages,  were  opening 
their  eyes  to  the  absurdities  and  corruptions  of  irre- 
sponsible ecclesiasticism.  The  fatal  independence  of 
the  clergy,  which  had  been  won  by  popes  like  Gregory 
VII.  and  bishops  like  our  St.  Thomas  of  Canterbury, 
had  produced  its  inevitable  effect.  Popes  and  clergy 
share  the  infirmities  of  ordinary  mortals,  and  no  hu- 
man being  or  body  of  human  beings  can  be  raised 
above  the  authority  of  law  and  opinion  without  devel- 
oping into  insolence,  presumption  and  profligacy. 
Some  vast  change,  as  Erasmus  saw,  was  immediately 
imminent.  He  expected,  and  he  was  entitled  to  ex- 
pect by  the  favour  which  had  been  shown  to  himself, 
that  it  would  take  the  shape  of  an  orderly  reform,  car- 
ried out  by  the  heads  of  the  Church  themselves  and 
the  princes  who  were  then  on  the  various  thrones  of 
Europe.  Every  sign  seemed  favourable  to  such  an 
issue.  The  invectives  of  Orthodoxy  against  Erasmus 
had  produced  no  effect  on  the  Pontiff  who  bore  the 
sword  of  St.  Peter.  Henry  VIII.  was,  according  to 
Sir  Thomas  More,  the  most  deeply  read  and  the  most 
nobly  intentioned  of  all  the  English  kings.  Francis 
I.  had  shown  his  own  disposition  by  entreating  Eras- 
mus to  live  with  him  in  Paris.  The  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian was  old,  but  generous  and  wise.  His  grandson 
Charles  had  shown  so  far  symptoms  of  brilliant  prom- 
ise. The  smaller  German  princes  waited  for  nothing 
but  a  sign  from  their  leaders  to  put  their  own  hands 
to  the  work.  Reactionary  ecclesiasticism  had  no 
friends  anywhere,  save  in  the  sense  of  the  sacredness 
of  religion  and  reluctance  to  meddle  with  a  system 
which  had  been  sanctified  by  the  customs  of  ages  —  a 
reluctance  which  would  have  yielded  immediately  be- 
fore a  movement  of  which  the  Pope  was  to  be  the  head. 


Lecture  X.  199 

Europe  was  at  last  at  peace.  The  princes  were  all 
friends.  It  was  an  opportunity  which  might  seem 
created  specially  by  Providence,  and  to  this  forfeited 
chance  Goethe  alluded  sadly  when  he  said  that  the  in- 
tellectual progress  of  mankind  had  been  thrown  back 
for  centuries  when  the  passions  of  the  multitude  were 
called  up  to  decide  questions  which  ought-  to  have  been 
left  to  the  thinkers. 

No  time  is  worse  wasted  than  in  speculations  over 
what  we  suppose  might  have  been.  Erasmus's  hopes 
for  a  peaceful  change  depended  on  the  Pope's  assist- 
ance or  leadership.  The  Roman  Court  was  the  centre 
and  heart  from  which  ecclesiastical  corruption  flowed 
over  Europe,  and  he  seems  really  to  have  persuaded 
himself  that  an  elegant  and  accomplished  Leo  X. 
would  consent  to  a  genuine  reform  which  must  begin 
with  himself  and  his  surroundings.  Providence  or 
destiny  is  a  stern  schoolmistress,  and  the  evil  spirits 
of  folly  and  iniquity  do  not  yield  so  easily  to  the  en- 
lightened efforts  of  Goethe's  thinkers. 

Suddeuly,  as  a  bolt  out  of  the  blue,  there  came  a 
flash  of  lightning,  which  scattered  these  fair  imagin- 
ings and  set  the  world  on  fire.  A  figure  now  steps 
out  upon*  the  scene  which  has  made  a  deeper  mark  on 
the  history  of  mankind  than  any  one  individual  man 
has  ever  left,  except  Mahomet. 

The  subject  of  these  lectures  is  Erasmus,  and  not 
Luther.  I  may  presume  that  you  are  generally  famil- 
iar with  Luther's  history,  and  a  few  words  about  it 
will  be  enough  on  this  occasion. 

Martin  Luther  was  the  son  of  a  miner  in  Saxony. 
Bred  up  piously  and  wisely,  he  had  a  natural  enthusi- 
asm of  his  own.  The  Christian  religion  taught  him 
that  the  highest  duty  of  man  was  the  service  of  God, 
and  to  this  he  determined  to  devote  himself.     Many 


200  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

young  men  Lave  experienced  similar  emotions  ;  they 
cool  down  with  most  of  us  as  we  come  into  practical 
contact  with  the  world  and  its  occupations.  With 
Luther  they  did  not  cool  down,  they  took  the  form  of 
ardent  resolution,  and  against  his  father's  wishes,  who 
knew  better  than  he  did  that  he  was  striking  on  a 
wrong  career,  he  made  his  profession  as  a  monk  in  an 
Auo-ustinian  convent.  He  was  not  content  with  the 
usual  exercises  of  the  rule.  He  prayed  perpetually. 
He  slept  on  the  stones,  fasted,  watched,  welcomed  all 
the  hardships  which  Erasmus  most  abhorred.  In  the 
library  he  found  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament  lying 
dusty  on  the  shelves.  He  studied  it,  digested  it,  dis- 
covered the  extraordinary  contrast  between  the  Chris- 
tianity which  was  taught  in  the  Gospels  and  Epistles 
and  the  Christianity  of  the  monasteries.  He  was  per- 
plexed, filled  with  doubts  and  misery,  and  knew  not 
what  to  do  or  where  to  turn.  He  increased  his  auster- 
ities, supposing  that  he  might  be  tempted  by  the 
devil.  In  the  convent  he  became  marked  for  the  in- 
tensity of  his  earnestness,  and  was  supposed  to  be  ma- 
turing for  a  saint.  The  house  to  which  he  belonged 
had  business  at  the  Court  of  Rome.  Luther  was 
selected  as  one  of  the  brethren  who  were  sent  thither 
to  represent  the  fraternity.  Erasmus  went  to  Italy  as 
a  companion  to  rich  young  Englishmen,  with  horses 
and  luxuries.  Luther  went  too,  but  Luther  walked 
there  barefoot  and  penniless,  passed  on  through  the 
houses  of  his  order  from  one  to  another.  But  both 
witnessed  the  same  scenes  and  experienced  the  same 
sensations  at  the  sight  of  Julius  II.  calling  himself 
the  successor  of  St.  Peter.  Luther,  too,  saw  the  car- 
dinals, the  hinges  of  Christendom,  with  their  palaces 
and  retinues  and  mistresses.  He  saw  Papal  Rome 
in  all  its  magnificence  of  art,  and  wealth,  and  power. 


Lecture  X.  201 

He  and  Erasmus  were  alike  conscious  of  the  mon- 
strous absurdity.  But  Erasmus,  while  he  wondered, 
could  also  admire  and  enjoy.  He  found  human  life 
cultivated  into  intellectual  grace.  He  found  the  ex- 
traordinary cardinals,  Leo  X.  being  then  one  of 
them,  open-minded,  liberal,  learned,  sceptical,  and 
scornful  as  himself  of  the  follies  of  the  established 
creed,  and  refined  even  in  their  personal  vices.  He 
did  not  admire  the  vices,  but  he  admired  the  men. 
Humanity,  as  represented  in  the  circle  which  sur- 
rounded the  Papacy,  appeared  to  him  infinitely  supe- 
rior to  the  barbarism  and  superstition  of  Western 
Christendom.  He  wanted  Western  Christendom  to 
be  educated  and  renovated,  and  he  thought  enlight- 
ened popes  and  prelates  to  be  competent  instruments 
for  the  work. 

The  impression  formed  upon  Luther  by  the  culture 
and  magnificence  was  totally  different.  To  him  it 
seemed  an  impious  parody.  He  had  kissed  the  ground 
when  he  came  in  sight  of  Rome,  expecting  to  find  it 
the  nursery  of  godliness.  Of  godliness  he  saw  not  a 
trace,  or  a  trace  of  wish  for  such  a  thing.  Erasmus 
despised  superstition.  If  it  be  superstitious  to  believe 
that  man  is  placed  in  this  world  to  learn  God's  will 
and  do  it,  that  life  has  no  other  meaning,  and  that 
splendour  and  luxury  rather  hinder  than  help  in  the 
pursuit  of  duty,  then  Luther  was  as  superstitious  as 
the  most  ignorant  hermit  that  ever  macerated  his  body 
in  a  desert.  He  was  no  rebel  against  established  au- 
thorities, he  wrote  no  "  Moria,"  no  satires  upon  mendi- 
cant friars  or  scholastic  divines.  He  went  home  be- 
wildered, but  resolved  that  he  woidd  do  his  own  small 
bit  of  work  faithfully,  whatever  it  might  be.  The  su- 
perior of  his  convent  saw  that  for  such  a  mind  active 
occupation  must  be  provided  if  it  was  not  to  prey  upon 


202  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

itself,  anil  Luther  was  removed  under  a  dispensation 
to  the  new  University  of  Wittenberg-.  There  he 
taught  classes.  There  he  preached  on  Sundays  and 
saints'  days  at  the  great  town  church,  and  soon  drew 
crowds  to  hear  him,  who  were  astonished  at  his  strange 
earnestness,  his  strange  eyes  which  were  like  a  lion's, 
and  the  strange  things  which  he  said. 

He  had  no  notion  of  making  a  disturbance  in  the 
world.  He  took  no  prominent  part  in  the  Reuchlin 
conflict.  He  had  read  voluminously,  but  learning  in 
and  for  itself  did  not  particularly  interest  him.  His 
whole  soul  was  turned  on  the  will  of  God  and  what 
God  had  made  known  about  Himself,  and  thus  his 
course  lay  altogether  apart  from  Erasmus  and  the 
prophets  of  the  Renaissance.  Erasmus  had  never 
heard  of  him.  If  he  had  heard  he  would  not  have 
cared  to  make  further  inquiry.  Yet  here,  unrecog- 
nised and  unthought  of  beyond  the  walls  of  Witten- 
berg, was  the  man  who  was  to  revolutionise  the  Chris- 
tian Church. 

The  Pope  was  rich,  but  the  gardens  of  Aladdin 
would  have  scarcely  supplied  the  means  for  the  splen- 
did expenditure  of  Leo  X.  Four  sources  contributed 
the  streams  which  supplied  the  papal  treasury :  the 
ordinary  revenues  of  the  States  of  the  Church;  the 
profits  from  the  Roman  Law  Courts,  to  which  causes 
were  brought  by  appeal  from  every  part  of  Europe ; 
the  annats,  or  first  year's  income  from  every  priest,  or 
bishop,  or  abbot  presented  to  a  benefice ;  and,  lastly, 
the  sale  of  pardons,  dispensations,  and  indulgences, 
permissions  to  do  things  which  would  be  wrong  with- 
out them,  or  remissions  of  penalties  prescribed  by  the 
canons  for  offences  —  indulgences  which  were  ex- 
tended by  popular  credulity  to  actual  pardons  for 
sins  committed,  and  were  issued  whenever  the  Pope 


Lecture  X.  203 

wanted  money.  Sorrowing  relations,  uneasy  for  the 
fate  of  a  soul  in  purgatory,  could  buy  out  their  friend 
at  a  fixed  scale  of  charges.  The  results  were  cal- 
culated beforehand.  Averages  could  be  taken  from 
repeated  experience.  Sometimes  a  capitalist  con- 
tracted on  speculation  for  the  anticipated  sum.  Some- 
times the  issue  was  disposed  of  by  recognised  officials 
resident  in  the  various  countries.  The  price  was  high 
or  low,  according  to  the  papal  necessities,  or  according 
to  the  magnitude  of  the  sins  to  which  it  would  reach ; 
but  as  no  one  could  be  held  so  innocent  as  to  have  no 
sins  to  be  pardoned  at  all,  every  pious  Christian  was 
on  all  such  occasions  expected  to  provide  himself  with 
a  Bull. 

St.  Peter's  Church  at  Rome  had  been  commenced, 
but  waited  its  completion.  Pope  Leo  wished  to  dis- 
tinguish his  reign  by  perfecting  the  magnificent  struc- 
ture. For  this,  and  for  other  purposes,  he  required 
a  subsidy  unusually  large,  and  an  indulgence  extrava- 
gantly wide  was  the  natural  expedient. 

There  was  nothing  in  such  a  measure  to  suggest 
remark.  Custom  had  made  such  things  too  familiar. 
The  Pope  possessed  in  his  treasury  the  accumulated 
superfluous  merits  of  all  the  saints  from  the  beginning 
of  the  Christian  Church.  They  were  his  to  dispose 
of  as  he  pleased  to  unfortunates  who  had  none  of  their 
own.  The  Pope  was  God's  vicegerent.  The  king- 
dom of  God  was  the  greatest  of  all  kingdoms,  and  it 
was  fit  and  right  that  its  capital  should  be  magnifi- 
cent. The  splendour  of  sovereigns  can  be  maintained 
only  by  the  contributions  of  their  subjects,  and  indul- 
gences were  sanctified  by  usage  as  the  mode  in  which 
such  contribtitions  could  best  be  offered.  The  Pope 
did  not  exact  taxes  like  secular  sovereigns.  He  gave 
something  in   return.     The  "  something "   might  not 


204  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

admit  of  precise  definition.  But  Christ  had  given  to 
the  Christian  priesthood  the  power  of  absolution. 
The  Pope  was  supreme  priest,  Pontifex  Maximus, 
and  possessed  that  power,  whatever  it  might  be,  in 
supreme  degree.  What  Christ  could  do  the  Pope 
could  do ;  and  at  any  rate  the  grant  of  indulgences 
was  a  time-honoured  custom  in  the  Church.  They 
might  or  they  might  not  be  of  real  benefit  to  the  soul, 
but  they  were  evidence  of  the  Pope's  goodwill,  and  at 
least  could  do  no  possible  harm.  Leo  X.  put  out  a 
profuse  issue  of  these  spiritual  bank-notes,  which  the 
faithful  were  expected  to  purchase  at  their  nominal 
value,  either  for  themselves  or  for  their  relations  who 
were  in  purgatory.  The  contract  for  Saxony  was 
taken  by  the  Archbishop  of  Mentz,  a  brilliant  youth 
of  twenty-eight  who  had  been  lately  made  cardinal, 
and  who  had  a  heavy  bill  against  him  still  unpaid  in 
the  papal  treasury  as  the  price  of  his  red  hat. 

The  collector  appointed  by  the  Archbishop  was  a 
Dominican  monk  named  Tetzel,  who  went  about  with 
bells  and  fifes,  and  a  suite  behind  him  like  a  proces- 
sion of  the  priests  and  priestesses  of  Cybele.  His 
method  of  disposing  of  his  wares  was  admitted  to  have 
been  injudicious.  The  sale  of  pardons  for  sins,  how- 
ever sanctioned  by  practice,  was  a  form  of  trade  which 
ought  to  have  been  covered  by  some  respectable  cere- 
monial. Tetzel  travelled  from  town  to  town,  adver- 
tising his  patent  medicines  from  the  pulpit  like  a 
modern  auctioneer,  and  telling  his  audience  that  as 
the  money  clinked  in  the  box  the  souls  of  sinners  flew 
up  to  heaven,  no  matter  how  mortal  their  offences. 
His  progress  brought  him  near  to  Wittenberg,  and  it 
was  too  much  for  Luther's  patience.  He  entreated 
the  Elector  of  Saxony  to  interfere.  The  Elector  was 
as  disgusted  as  himself,  but  did  not  see  his  way  to 


Lecture  X.  205 

interrupting  the  officials  of  the  Holy  See.  Luther 
acted  alone,  and  nailed  up  his  world-famous  challenge 
on  the  Wittenberg  Church  door  —  a  challenge  to 
Tetzel  or  any  monk  or  priest  to  prove  that  a  piece  of 
paper  signed  by  the  Pope  could  put  away  sin. 

To  a  question  so  presented  the  unclerical  mind 
could  return  but  one  answer.  From  Wittenberg,  from 
Saxony,  from  all  Northern  Europe  —  for  the  news 
spread  like  an  electric  stroke  —  there  rose  a  "  No !  " 
which  shook  the  Church  to  its  foundations.  The  re- 
ligious orders  raved  "  heresy "  from  their  pulpits. 
Luther  replied  first  with  moderation,  then  fiercely  and 
scornfully.  Pamphlet  followed  pamphlet,  and  it  was 
soon  open  war,  with  the  laity  of  Europe  for  an  audi- 
ence, cheering  on  the  audacious  rebel.  The  vibration 
of  the  shock  reached  Erasmus,  and  was  received  by 
him  with  very  mixed  feelings.  At  first  he  admitted 
that  he  felt  a  secret  pleasure.  If  Luther  could  suc- 
ceed in  putting  down  the  system  of  indulgences  there 
would  be  one  imposture  the  less,  and  he  was  not  sorry 
that  the  Church  should  be  made  to  face  the  danger  of 
postponing  longer  the  inevitable  reforms.  But  he 
was  in  the  midst  of  his  own  battle.  He  did  not  wish 
to  be  burdened  with  further  responsibilities.  Least 
of  all  could  he  wish  that  his  quarrel  with  the  monks 
shoidd  be  complicated  with  an  attack  upon  the  Pope, 
who  was  his  own  chief  support.  Nor  had  he  any  par- 
ticular sympathy  with  Luther's  way  of  looking  at 
things.  He  hated  tyranny.  He  had  an  intellectual 
contempt  for  lies  and  ignorance,  backed  up  by  bigotry 
and  superstition.  He  was  ready  and  willing  to  fight 
angry  monks  and  scholastics.  But  he  had  none  of 
the  passionate  horror  of  falsehood  in  sacred  things 
which  inspired  the  new  movement.  He  had  no  pas- 
sionate emotions  of  any  kind,  and  rather  dreaded  than 


206  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

welcomed  the  effervescence  of  religious  enthusiasm. 
The  faults  of  the  Church,  as  ho  saw  them,  were 
oblivion  and  absolute  neglect  of  ordinary  morality, 
the  tendency  to  substitute  for  obedience  to  the  Ten 
Commandments  an  extravagant  superstition  chiefly 
built  upon  Action,  and  a  doctrinal  system,  hardening 
and  stiffening  with  each  generation,  which  was  made 
the  essence  of  religion,  defined  by  ecclesiastical  law, 
guarded  by  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  enforced  by  steel 
and  .fire.  His  dream  was  a  return  to  early  Chris- 
tianity as  it  was  before  councils  had  laid  the  minds 
of  men  in  chains;  a  Christianity  of  practice,  not  of 
opinion,  where  the  Church  itself  might  consent  to 
leave  the  intellect  free  to  think  as  it  pleased  on  the 
inscrutable  mysteries ;  and  where,  as  the  Church  would 
no  longer  insist  on  particular  forms  of  belief,  man- 
kind would  cease  to  hate  and  slaughter  each  other 
because  they  differed  on  points  of  metaphysics.  In 
Luther  he  saw  the  same  disposition  to  dogmatic  asser- 
tion at  the  opposite  pole  of  thought ;  an  intolerance  of 
denial  as  dangerous  as  the  churchman's  intolerance  of 
affirmation.  What  could  Luther,  what  could  any 
man  know  of  the  real  essence  of  the  Divine  Will  and 
Nature  ?  Canons  of  orthodoxy  were  but  reflections  of 
human  passion  and  perversity.  If  Luther's  spirit 
spread,  dogma  would  be  met  with  dogma,  each  calling 
itself  the  truth  ;  reason  could  never  end  disputes  which 
did  not  originate  in  reason,  but  originated  in  bigotry 
or  a  too  eager  imagination.  From  argument  there 
would  be  a  quick  resort  to  the  sword,  and  the  whole 
world  would  be  full  of  fury  and  madness.  How  well 
Erasmus  judged  two  centuries  of  religious  wars  were 
to  tell.  The  wheel  has  come  round  at  last.  The 
battle  for  liberty  of  opinion  has  been  fought  out  to 
the  bitter   end.     Common-sense  has  been  taught  at 


Lecture  X.  207 

last  that  persecution  for  opinions  must  cease.  After 
the  exhaustion  of  the  struggle  the  world  has  come 
round  to  the  Erasmian  view,  and  one  asks  why  all  that 
misery  was  necessary  before  the  voice  of  moderation 
could  be  heard.  I  suppose  because  reason  has  so 
little  to  do  with  the  direction  of  human  conduct.  I 
called  Erasmus's  views  of  reform  a  dream.  It  was  a 
dream  of  the  ivory  gate.  Reason  is  no  match  for 
superstition.  One  passion  can  only  be  encountered 
by  another  passion,  and  bigotry  by  the  enthusiasm  of 
faith. 

But  what  was  Erasmus  to  do  in  the  new  element 
which  had  sprung  out  so  suddenly  ?  Turn  against 
Luther  he  would  not,  for  he  knew  that  Luther's  de- 
nunciation of  the  indulgences  had  been  as  right  as  it 
was  brave.  Declare  for  him  he  would  not.  He  could 
not  commit  himself  to  a  movement  which  he  could  not 
control,  and  which  for  all  he  could  see  might  become 
an  unguided  insurrection.  Like  all  men  of  his  tem- 
perament, he  disbelieved  in  popular  convulsions,  and 
remained  convinced  that  no  good  could  be  done 
except  through  the  established  authorities.  He  de- 
termined therefore  to  stand  aside,  stick  to  his  own 
work,  and  watch  how  things  went.  He  held  aloof. 
He  purposely  abstained  from  reading  Luther's  books 
that  he  might  be  able  to  deny  that  he  had  been  in 
communication  with  him.  Not  wishing  to  write  to 
Luther  himself,  yet  not  wishing  to  seem  to  be  without 
sympathy  for  him,  he  wrote  in  the  summer  of  1518,  a 
few  months  after  the  scene  at  Wittenberg,  to  the  rec- 
tor of  the  school  at  Erfurt  where  Luther  had  been 
bred.     He  says :  — 

That  frigid,  quarrelsome  old  lady,  Theology,  had 
swollen  herself  to  such  a  point  of  vanity  that  it  was 
necessary  to   bring   her   back  to  the  fountain,  but  I 


208  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

would  rather  have  her  mended  than  ended.  I  would 
at  least  have  her  permitted  to  endure  till  a  better 
theology  has  been  invented.  Luther  has  said  many 
things  excellently  well.  I  could  wish,  however,  that 
he  would  be  less  rude  in  his  manner.  He  would  have 
stronger  support  behind  him,  and  might  do  real  good. 
But,  at  any  rate,  unless  we  stand  by  him  when  he  is 
right,  no  one  hereafter  will  dare  to  speak  the  truth. 
I  can  give  no  opinion  about  his  positive  doctrines ; 
but  one  good  thing  he  has  done,  and  has  been  a 
public  benefactor  by  doing  it  —  he  has  forced  the 
controversialists  to  examine  the  early  Fathers  for 
themselves. 

The  atmosphere  at  Louvain  grew  more  squally  than 
ever  after  Luther's  business  began.  It  gave  the 
monks  a  stick  to  beat  Erasmus  with,  and  they  used 
it  to  such  purpose  that  he  doubted  whether  he  would 
be  able  to  keep  his  footing  there,  and  whether  he 
might  not  be  forced  to  fly  for  refuge  to  England 
agrain.  Even  there  he  could  not  be  certain  of  his 
reception. 

The  monks  said  the  conflagration  was  his  doing. 
In  a  sense  it  is  true  that  it  was  his  doing.  "  Moria  " 
and  the  New  Testament  had  been  dangerous  fire- 
works, and  every  Greek  scholar  and  every  friend  of 
learning:  was  on  Luther's  side.  The  reactionaries  in 
Germany  and  England  too  could  point  to  their  pre- 
dictions :  had  not  they  always  said  how  these  novel- 
ties would  end  ? 

To  see  how  the  wind  lay  on  the  English  side,  and 
to  prepare  the  way  should  flight  from  Louvain  be 
necessary,  he  wrote  a  long  and  remarkable  letter  to 
Wolsey. 

Considering  how  much  we  hear  from  Erasmus  about 
England,  there  is  less  mention  of  Wolsey  in  the  corre- 
spondence generally  than  might  have  been  expected. 


Lecture  X.  209 

At  first,  perhaps,  the  great  Cardinal  took  no  notice  of 
Erasmus ;  and  then,  finding-  that  he  was  become  a 
person  of  consequence,  paid  him  some  kind  of  atten- 
tion. But  there  was  never  any  kind  of  intimacy  be- 
tween them.  Oil  and  water  woidd  sooner  mix  than 
the  great  pluralist  Cardinal,  symbol  of  all  that  was 
worst  in  ecclesiastical  ascendency,  half  statesman,  half 
charlatan,  and  the  keen  sarcastic  Erasmus,  to  whom 
the  charlatan  side  would  be  too  painfully  evident. 

But  Wolsey  was  now  omnipotent  in  England.  Eras- 
mus might  need  his  help,  or  at  least  his  sanction  to  a 
return  thither.  The  letter  was  sent  with  a  due  dose 
of  flattery  and  incense,  to  assure  Wolsey  that  he  had 
no  connection  with  the  German  movement.1 

Stories,  he  says,  had  reached  his  Eminence's  ears 
that  he,  Erasmus,  was  responsible  for  the  German 
outburst.  He  wishes  Wolsey  to  understand  that  it 
was  not  true.  Luther,  he  heard,  was  a  person  of 
blameless  life ;  this  Luther's  worst  enemies  acknow- 
ledged ;  but  he  had  never  seen  him,  he  had  never 
read  his  books.  As  to  the  opinions  contained  in 
them,  he  was  not  vain  enough  to  pass  a  judgment  on 
a  man  so  remarkable.  He  had  thought  it  imprudent 
on  Luther's  part  to  reflect  on  pardons  and  indul- 
gences, forming  as  they  did  the  chief  part  of  the 
monks'  revenues,  but  he  had  expressed  no  opinion  on 
what  Luther  had  published,  favourable  or  unfavour- 
able. He  was  not  rash  enough  to  praise  what  he  had 
not  studied,  nor  unprincipled  enough  to  condemn. 

As  to  the  rest  (he  went  on)  Germany  has  young 
men  of  high  promise,  who  are  fighting  against  the 
Obscurantists  and  use  the  first  weapon  which  comes 
to  hand.  I  should  blame  their  violence  if  I  did  not 
know  how  intolerably  they  have  been  provoked.     The 

1  JEp.  cccxvii.,  abridged. 


210  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

enemies  of  learning  denounce  and  slander  them,  and 
shriek  and  scream  if  they  get  a  scratch  in  return. 
They  are  to  cry  heresy,  and  appeal  to  earth  and 
heaven,  and  to  the  princes  and  the  mob,  and  we  are 
not  to  utter  a  disrespectful  word.  Von  Hutten  and 
his  friends  are  young,  they  are  not  without  wit,  and 
they  are  naturally  exasperated  at  the  attacks  on  them. 
I  have  admonished  them  to  be  more  cautious.  I  have 
advised  them  to  keep  their  pens  off  popes,  and  car- 
dinals, and  bishops,  who  are  their  only  protectors. 
What  can  I  do  more  ?  I  can  control  my  own  style : 
I  cannot  govern  theirs.  Everything  is  laid  at  my 
door.  Each  new  work  that  appears  must  be  mine, 
whether  I  wrote  it  or  not.  My  works  are  widely  read, 
and  expressions  used  by  me  may  find  their  way  into 
the  writings  of  others,  even  of  my  enemies.  There  is 
mockery  in  "  Moria  "  —  but  only  innocent  mockery. 
No  word  has  come  from  me  to  offend  modesty  or 
encourage  sedition  or  impiety.  I  have  the  thanks  of 
everyone,  except  of  divines  and  monks,  who  do  not 
like  to  have  their  eyes  opened.  I  am  saying  perhaps 
more  than  I  need.  I  have  said  so  much  only  because 
I  learn  that  certain  persons  are  trying  to  prejudice 
your  Eminence's  mind  against  me.  I  trust  you  will 
not  listen  to  such  calumnies.  Erasmus  will  always  be 
found  on  the  side  of  the  Roman  See,  and  especially  of 
its  present  occupant. 


LECTURE  XI. 

The  Court  of  Rome,  which  had  survived  the  in- 
famies of  Alexander  VI.,  might  naturally  disdain  the 
rumours  of  spiritual  disturbances  in  a  remote  province 
of  Germany.  The  roots  of  the  papal  power  had 
struck  so  deep  into  the  spiritual  and  secular  organisa- 
tion of  Europe,  that  it  might  believe  itself  safe  from 
any  wind  that  could  blow.  If  the  crimes  of  the  Bor- 
gias  had  not  disenchanted  mankind  of  their  belief 
that  the  popes  were  representatives  of  the  Almighty, 
the  spell  was  not  likely  to  be  broken  by  a  clamour 
over  indulgences.  It  was  but  a  quarrel  of  noisy 
monks.  When  Luther's  theses  were  submitted  to 
Leo  X.,  the  infallible  voice  observed  merely  that  a 
drunken  German  wrote  them  :  "  When  he  has  slept 
off  his  wine  he  will  know  better."  Erasmus,  encour- 
aged by  the  Pope's  encouragement  of  art  and  learn- 
ing, and  especially  by  Leo's  patronage  of  himself,  had 
believed  that  they  were  on  the  eve  of  a  general  Re- 
formation, undertaken  by  the  Church  itself.  Though 
he  had  not  liked  Luther's  tone  or  manners,  he  had 
been  delighted  with  the  stir  in  Saxony,  as  giving  the 
Holy  See  the  impulse  to  begin  the  work  which  he 
supposed  alone  to  be  needed.  It  was  a  fond  imagina- 
tion. Pope  Leo  is  credited  by  tradition  with  having 
called  the  Church  system  a  profitable  fable.  Fabu- 
lous or  true,  it  was  the  foundation  on  which  had  been 
erected  his  own  splendid  dominion,  and  he  was  not 
likely  to  allow  his  right  to  his  own  revenues  to  be 
successfully  challenged. 


212  Life   and  Letters   of  Erasmus. 

Roused  at  last  into  recognising  that  Luther's  action 
had  set  tongues  busy  asking  questions  which  could 
not  he  answered,  he  struck  at  first  on  the  notable  idea 
of  a  fresh  crusade  against  the  Crescent,  and  the  re- 
covery of  Constantinople.  It  would  divert  attention, 
create  a  fresh  tide  of  emotional  piety,  and  lend  new 
lustre  to  his  own  throne.  How  far  this  scheme  was 
intended  to  be  proceeded  with  it  is  impossible  to  say, 
but  it  went  far  enough  to  show  Erasmus  the  folly  of 
his  own  expectations,  and  in  all  his  letters  none  are 
more  scornfully  bitter  than  those  in  which  he  de- 
nounced the  sinister  influences  of  Leo's  advisers. 
He  would  as  soon,  he  said,  turn  Mahometan  himself 
as  be  a  Christian  after  the  type  in  favour  at  the  Vati- 
can.    He  writes  to  Sir  T.  More,  March  5,  1518 : 1  — 

The  Pope  and  the  princes  are  at  a  new  game. 
They  pretend  that  there  is  to  be  a  grand  war  against 
the  Turk.  The  poor  Turk  !  I  hope  we  shall  not  be 
too  savage  with  him.  What  will  the  women  say  ? 
The  whole  male  sex  between  twenty-six  and  fifty  are 
to  take  up  arms,  and  as  the  Pope  will  not  let  the 
ladies  enjoy  themselves  while  their  husbands  are  in 
the  field,  they  are  to  wear  no  silk  or  jewels,  drink  no 
wine,  and  fast  every  other  day.  Husbands  who  can- 
not go  on  the  campaign  are  to  be  under  the  same 
rule.  No  kissing  to  be  allowed  till  the  war  is  over. 
Many  wives  will  not  like  this.  Yours  I  am  sure  will 
approve.  But  oh,  immortal  gods !  what  has  come 
over  these  rulers  of  ours  ?  Are  popes  and  kings  so 
lost  to  shame  that  they  treat  their  subjects  as  cattle  to 
be  bought  and  sold  ? 

Nero  fiddled  while  Rome  was  burning.  Leo  X. 
trying  to  occupy  the  mind  of  Europe  with  fighting 
or  converting  Turks  while  Luther  was  setting  Ger- 
many on  fire  was  a  feat  not  very  dissimilar. 

1  Ep,  eclxv.,  second  series,  abridged. 


Lecture  XL  213 

At  greater  length  Erasmus  poured  out  his  disap- 
pointment and  indignation  to  his  friend  Abbot  Vol- 
zius,  who  became  afterwards  a  Calvinist.1 

We  are  not,  I  presume,  to  kill  all  the  Turks.  The 
survivors  are  to  be  made  Christians,  and  we  are  to 
send  them  our  Occams  and  our  Scoti  as  missionaries. 
I  wonder  what  the  Turks  will  think  when  they  hear 
about  instances  and  causes  formative,  about  quiddities 
and  relativities,  and  see  our  own  theologians  cursing 
and  spitting  at  each  other,  the  preaching  friars  crying 
up  their  St.  Thomas,  the  Minorites  their  Doctor  Ser- 
aphicus,  the  Nominalists  and  Realists  wrangling  about 
the  nature  of  the  Second  Person  of  the  Trinity  as  if 
Christ  was  a  malignant  demon  ready  to  destroy  you 
if  you  made  a  mistake  about  His  nature.  While  our 
lives  and  manners  remain  as  depraved  as  they  now 
are  the  Turks  will  see  in  us  but  so  many  rapacious 
and  licentious  vermin.  How  are  we  to  make  the 
Turks  believe  in  Christ  till  we  show  that  we  believe 
in  Him  ourselves  ?  Reduce  the  Articles  of  Faith  to 
the  feivest  and  the  simplest  — "  Quce  pertinent  ad 
fidem  quam  paucissimis  articulis  dbsolvantur." 
Show  them  that  Christ's  yoke  is  easy,  that  we  are 
shepherds  and  not  robbers,  and  do  not  mean  to  op- 
press them.  Send  them  messengers  such  as  these 
instead  of  making  war,  and  then  we  may  effect  some 
good.  But,  oh!  what  an  age  we  live  in.  When 
were  morals  more  corrupt  ?  —  ritual  and  ceremony 
walking  hand  in  hand  with  vice,  and  wretched  mor- 
tals caring  only  to  fill  their  purses.  Christ  cannot  be 
taught  even  among  Christians.  The  cry  is  only  for 
pardons,  dispensations,  and  indulgences,  and  the 
trade  goes  on  in  the  name  of  popes  and  princes,  and 
even  of  Christ  Himself.  Ask  a  question  of  the  scho- 
lastic divines  and  the  casuists,  and  you  are  told  of 
qualifications,  or  equivocations,  and  such  like.  Not 
one  of  them  will  say  to  you,  Do  this  and  leave  that. 
They  ought  to  show  their  faith  in  their  works,  and 
convert  Turks  by  the  beauty  of  their  lives. 

1  Ep.  cccxxix.,  abridged. 


214  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

And  dogmas  were  to  be  heaped  on  dogmas,  and 
Christendom  was  to  be  turned  into  a  bloody  circus  of 
quarrelling  doctrinaires,  murdering  each  other  in  the 
name  of  God,  while  the  Turks,  far  away  from  conver- 
sion, wore  to  hang  over  Europe,  threatening  Western 
Christianity  with  the  same  fate  which  had  over- 
whelmed the  Churches  of  Asia.  Why  would  not 
men  be  reasonable  ?  Luther's  voice  swelled  louder. 
Erasmus  vainly  implored  him  to  be  moderate.  Eras- 
mus had  no  spell  to  command  the  winds  not  to  blow. 
Leo's  eyes  were  opened  at  last.  He  found  his  indul- 
gences would  no  longer  sell  in  the  market.  His  rev- 
enues were  seriously  threatened.  The  troublesome 
monk  must  be  silenced.  He  required  the  Elector  of 
Saxony  to  arrest  Luther.  The  Elector  declined,  till 
the  objections  to  the  indulgences  had  been  answered. 
Indulgences  and  pardons  were  but  one  of  a  thousand 
forms  in  which  the  flock  of  Christ  had  been  fleeced. 
Each  grievance  found  a  voice,  and  the  movement  be- 
gan perilously  to  shape  itself  into  a  revolt  of  the 
laity  against  the  clergy.  Luther  dared  to  say  that 
the  clergy  were  but  as  other  men,  that  their  apostolic 
succession  was  a  dream,  and  the  claim  to  supernatu- 
ral powers  on  which  the  whole  pretension  of  the 
Church  to  its  sovereign  authority  rested  was  an  illu- 
sion and  imposture.  Something  had  to  be  done,  but 
what  ?  Nuncios  were  sent  and  then  legates  —  not  to 
answer  Luther,  for  no  answer  was  possible,  but  to 
threaten  him,  to  bribe  him,  any  way  to  silence  him. 
Luther  had  not  meant  to  raise  such  a  tempest.  He 
had  merely  protested  against  a  scandal.  If  the  Pope 
would  have  stopped  the  sale  of  the  indulgences  and 
condemned  the  grossness  of  Tetzel  and  his  doings, 
Luther,  much  as  he  disliked  the  teaching  and  practice 
of  the  Church  in  general,  would  have  said  no  more, 


Lecture  XL  215 

and  his  own  share  in  the  revolt  would  have  ended. 
It  was  not  for  him  to  call  to  account  Pope  and 
bishops,  and  remodel  the  world.  But,  as  Erasmus 
said,  the  whole  business  was  mismanaged.  Aleander, 
Miltitz,  Cardinal  Cajetan,  who  were  despatched  suc- 
cessively from  Rome  to  quiet  matters,  were  insolent 
churchmen,  impatient  and  indignant  that  the  majesty 
of  the  Papacy  shoidd  be  defied  by  a  miserable  monk. 
Fire  and  faggot  were  the  fitting  and  proper  remedy. 
A  troublesome  Elector  of  Saxony,  himself  half  a 
heretic  at  heart,  refusing  to  indulge  them,  they  alter- 
nately flattered  and  cursed,  entreated  and  imprecated. 
A  Papal  Bidl  came  out  formally  approving  the  indul- 
gences, condemning  Luther's  action,  which  Erasmus 
says  every  right-minded  man  in  Germany  approved, 
ordering  his  books  to  be  burnt,  and  commanding  his 
arrest  and  punishment.  It  might  have  answered  a 
century  before,  but  times  change,  and  men  along  with 
them.  Free  Germany  only  asked  the  louder  who  and 
what  the  Pope  was  that  he  should  claim  to  punish  a 
German  citizen  who  had  only  thrown  into  words  what 
every  honest  man  believed. 

Erasmus,  moving  between  Louvain  and  Bale,  was 
noting  anxiously  the  spread  of  the  conflagration,  more 
and  more  uncertain  what  part  to  take,  and  breaking 
out,  as  men  will  do  when  they  see  things  going  as  they 
do  not  like,  into  lamentations  on  the  wickedness  of  the 
world. 

Princes,  he  well  knew,  disliked  and  feared  popular 
movements.  Rebellion  against  the  Pope  might  turn 
easily  into  rebellion  against  themselves.  Possibly 
enough  they  might  combine  to  put  the  whole  thing 
down  ;  and  then,  as  he  sadly  recognised,  tl^e  forcible 
suppression  of  Luther  would  give  the  victory  to  his 
own  enemies,  and  he  and  all  that  he  had  done  or  tried 


21G  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

to  Jo  would  be  crushed  along"  with  this  new  insurgent. 
Or  it  might  be  that  the  princes  might  try  and  fail,  and 
there  would  be  revolution  and  civil  war.  In  that  case 
ought  he  not,  must  he  not  declare  himself  on  Luther's 
side  ?  lie  had  told  Wolsey  that  his  place  would  be 
always  with  the  Pope,  but  the  Pope  had  not  then  gone 
to  extremities. 

As  it  was,  the  blame  of  what  had  happened  was  thrown 
upon  him,  and  not  altogether  without  justice.  At  that 
very  moment  he  was  doing  Luther's  work.  His  New 
Testament  and  his  "  Moria  "  were  circulating  in  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  copies,  bringing  the  monks  and 
theologians  into  scorn.  Naturally  enough  his  oppo- 
nents saw  their  own  predictions  confirmed.  Here  is 
what  comes  of  your  Greek  and  Hebrew.  Did  n't  we 
say  it  would  be  so?  He  could  not  clear  himself. 
Would  it  not  be  safer,  better,  more  honourable  to  fall 
into  rank  with  the  general  movement  ?  And  yet  the 
whole  form  of  Luther's  action  was  distasteful  to  him. 
He  had  no  passion.  He  distrusted  enthusiasm.  He 
abhorred  violence.  To  declare  for  Luther  after  Luther 
had  been  condemned  at  Rome  was  to  quarrel  for  ever 
with  the  Vatican ;  and  victory,  if  Luther  succeeded, 
seemed  to  be  leading  to  fresh  dogmas  as  unwelcome  to 
him  as  scholasticism.  His  position  was  infinitely  uneasy. 
He  was  railed  at  in  lecture-rooms,  insulted  in  the  pulpits, 
cursed  and  libelled  in  the  press,  and,  except  by  now 
and  then  turning  round  and  biting  some  specially 
snarling  cur,  he  could  do  nothing  to  defend  himself. 

Erasmus  said  he  disliked  fighting  monsters,  for 
whether  he  won  or  lost  he  was  always  covered  with 
venom.     He  writes  to  Marcus  Laurinus : 1  — 

When  you  find  a  man  raging  against  my  New  Tes- 
tament ask  him  if  he  has  read  it.     If  he  says  Yes,  ask 

1  Canon  of  Bruges.     Ep.  ecclvi.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XL  217 

him  to  what  he  objects.  Not  one  of  them  can  tell 
you.  Is  not  this  Christian  ?  Is  it  not  "  monastic  "  to 
slander  a  man  without  knowing  where  he  is  in  fault  ? 
Heresy  is  held  a  deadly  crime,  so  if  you  offend  one  of 
these  gentlemen  they  all  rush  on  you  together,  one 
grunting  out "  heretic,"  the  rest  grunting  in  chorus,  and 
crying  for  stones  to  hurl  at  you.  Verily,  they  have 
whetted  their  teeth  like  serpents.  The  poison  of  asps 
is  under  their  lips.  They  have  no  tongue  to  bless  with, 
but  tongue  enough  for  lies  and  slander.  Nothing- 
pleases  them  like  blackening  another  man's  good  name. 
Such  creatures  are  not  to  be  forgotten.  They  must  be 
embalmed  in  writing  that  posterity  may  know  the  mal- 
ice which  can  conceal  itself  under  zeal  for  religion. 
Possibly,  if  I  try,  I  may  be  able  to  preserve  the  por- 
traits of  some  of  these  gentry  myself. 

The  monks  and  divines  had  no  cause  to  love  Eras- 
mus. No  wonder  they  returned  the  compliments 
which  he  had  paid  them.  It  was  blow  for  blow  and 
sting  for  sting,  and  he  need  not  have  cried  out  so 
loudly.  Happily  for  him  he  was  not  chained  to  Lou- 
vain.  Half  his  time  was  spent  at  Bale  with  his  prin- 
ter, where  the  noises  reached  him  less.  But  more 
than  ever  he  looked  wistfully  towards  England. 

His  English  friend,  Dr.  Pace,  who  had  been  abroad 
on  a  diplomatic  mission,  had  spent  a  few  days  at  Bale 
with  him.  The  sight  of  an  English  face  revived  his 
longings. 

TO  PAULUS    BOMBASIUS.1 

July  26,  1518. 

Pace  is  recalled.  The  King  and  Cardinal  cannot 
do  without  him.  I  have  myself  avoided  princes' 
courts,  as  I  looked  on  life  in  such  places  as  splendid 
misery  ;  but  if  I  had  my  life  to  begin  again  I  would 
prefer  to  spend  it  at  the  English  Court.     The  King 

1  Professor  at  Bologna.    Ep.  ccclxxvii. 


218  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

is  the  heartiest  man  living"  (cordatissimus*)  and  de- 
lights in  good  hooks.  The  Queen  is  miraculously 
learned  for  a  woman,  and  is  equally  pious  and  excel- 
lent. Both  of  them  like  to  he  surrounded  by  the  most 
accomplished  of  their  subjects.  Linacre  is  Court  phy- 
sician, and  what  he  is  I  need  not  say.  Thomas  More 
is  in  the  Privy  Council.  Mountjoy  is  in  the  Queen's 
household.  Colet  is  Court  preacher.  Stokesly,  a 
master  of  Greek,  Hebrew,  Latin  and  scholastic  theol- 
ogy, is  a  Privy  Councillor  also.  The  Palace  is  full 
of  such  men,  a  very  museum  of  knowledge. 

Again,  to  Wolsey :  — 

Fool  that  I  was  to  have  rejected  the  King's  and 
your  kind  offers.  Had  I  accepted  the  hand  which  was 
held  out  to  me  I  might  have  been  living  happily  in  a 
cultivated  circle  of  friends,  instead  of  struggling  with 
ungrateful  and  insolent  calumniators.  Bodily  tor- 
ments are  bad  enough,  but  these  mental  torments  are 
worse.  They  come  one  knows  not  whence  —  perhaps 
from  the  stars,  perhaps  from  the  devil.  What  a 
thing  it  is  to  cultivate  literature.  Better  far  grow 
cabbages  in  a  garden.  Bishops  have  thanked  me  for 
my  work,  the  Pope  has  thanked  me  ;  but  these  tyrants 
the  mendicant  friars  never  leave  me  alone  with  their 
railing. 

Erasmus  was  ill  this  summer  at  Bale  (1518)  with 
cough  and  dysentery.  The  worse  he  was  the  more  he 
pined  for  England.  He  had  decided  to  go  there  if 
his  health  would  let  him,  whether  invited  or  not. 

I  would  like  well  to  know  whether  I  have  anything 
to  look  for  with  you  (he  wrote  to  Cuthbert  Tun  stall *). 
I  grow  old.  I  am  not  as  strong  as  I  was.  If  I  could 
have  the  additional  hundred  marks  which  the  King 
offered  me  some  time  back  I  would  ask  no  more. 
Here  I  have  nothing  to  look  for.     The  Chancellor,  on 

1  Then  Master  of  the  Rolls,  afterwards  Bishop  of  London  and  of 
Durham. 


Lecture  XL  219 

whom  I  chiefly  depended,  is  dead  in  Spain.  His 
chaplain  writes  that  if  he  had  lived  three  months 
longer  he  would  have  provided  for  me.  Cold  comfort. 
Nowhere  in  the  world  is  learning  worse  neglected  than 
here. 

Trouble  enough  and  anxiety  enough !  Yet  in  the 
midst  of  bad  health  and  furious  monks  —  it  is  the 
noblest  feature  in  him  —  his  industry  never  slackened, 
and  he  drew  out  of  his  difficulties  the  materials  which 
made  his  name  immortal.  He  was  for  ever  on  the 
wing,  searching  libraries,  visiting  learned  men,  con- 
sulting with  politicians  or  princes.  His  correspond- 
ence was  enormous.  His  letters  on  literary  subjects 
are  often  treatises  in  themselves,  and  go  where  he 
would  his  eyes  were  open  to  all  things  and  persons. 
His  writings  were  passing  through  edition  on  edition. 
He  was  always  adding  and  correcting  ;  while  new 
tracts,  new  editions  of  the  Fathers  show  an  acuteness 
of  attention  and  an  extent  of  reading  which  to  a  mod- 
ern student  seems  beyond  the  reach  of  any  single  in- 
tellect. Yet  he  was  no  stationary  scholar  confined  to 
desk  or  closet.  He  was  out  in  the  world,  travelling 
from  city  to  city,  gathering  materials  among  all  places 
and  all  persons,  from  palace  to  village  alehouse,  and 
missing  nothing  which  had  meaning  or  amusement  in 
it.  In  all  literary  history  there  is  no  more  extraordi- 
nary figure.  Harassed  by  orthodox  theologians,  un- 
certain of  his  duties  in  the  revolutionary  tempest, 
doubtful  in  what  country  to  find  rest  or  shelter,  anx- 
ious for  his  future,  anxious  for  his  life  (for  he  knew 
how  Orthodoxy  hated  him,  and  he  had  no  wish  to  be 
a  martyr  in  an  ambiguous  cause),  he  was  putting 
together  another  work  which,  like  "  Moria,"  was  to 
make  his  name  immortal.  Of  his  learned  productions, 
brilliant  as  they  were,  Erasmus  thought   but   little. 


220  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

He  considered  them  hastily  and  inaccurately  done ;  he 
even  wondered  how  anyone  could  read  them.  But 
his  letters,  his  "  Moria,"  and  now  the  "  Colloquies," 
which  he  was  composing  in  his  intervals  of  leisure, 
are  pictures  of  his  own  mind,  pictures  of  men  and 
things  which  show  the  hand  of  an  artist  in  the  highest 
sense,  never  spiteful,  never  malicious,  always  delight- 
ful and  amusing,  and  finished  photographs  of  the 
world  in  which  he  lived  and  moved.  The  subject 
might  be  mean  or  high,  a  carver  of  genuis  will  make 
a  work  of  art  out  of  the  end  of  a  broomstick.  The . 
journey  to  Brindisi  was  a  common  adventure  in  a  fly- 
boat  ;  Horace  has  made  it  live  for  ever.  Erasmus  had 
the  true  artist's  gift  of  so  handling  everything  that  he 
touched,  vulgar  or  sublime,  that  human  interest  is 
immediately  awakened,  and  in  these  "  Colloquies," 
which  are  the  record  of  what  he  himself  saw  and 
heard,  we  have  the  human  inhabitants  of  Europe  be- 
fore us  as  they  then  were  in  all  countries  except 
Spain,  and  of  all  degrees  and  sorts ;  bishops  and  ab- 
bots, monks  and  parish  priests,  lords  and  commoners, 
French  grisettes,  soldiers  of  fortune,  treasure-seekers, 
quacks,  conjurors,  tavern-keepers,  there  they  all  stand, 
the  very  image  and  mirror  of  the  time.  Miserable  as 
he  often  considered  himself,  Erasmus  shows  nothing 
of  it  in  the  "  Colloquies."  No  bitterness,  no  com- 
plainings, no  sour  austerity  or  would-be  virtuous  ear- 
nestness but  everywhere  a  genial  human  sympathy 
which  will  not  be  too  hard  upon  the  wretchedest  of 
rogues,  with  the  healthy  apprehension  of  all  that  is 
innocent  and  good.  The  "  Colloquies  "  were  not  pub- 
lished till  four  years  latter  than  the  time  with  which 
we  are  now  concerned,  but  they  were  composed  at  in- 
tervals during  a  long  period  —  the  subjects  picked 
up  as  he  went  along,  dressed  into  shape  as  he  rode, 


Lecture  XL  221 

and  written  as  opportunity  served,  sometimes  two  or 
three  in  a  single  day. 

They  are  a  happy  evidence  that  in  the  midst  of  his 
complaints  and  misgivings  his  inner  spirit  was  lively 
and  brilliant  as  ever,  and  that  the  existence  of  which 
he  professed  to  be  weary  was  less  clouded  than  he 
would  have  his  friends  believe.  The  best  and  bright- 
est are  his  pictures  of  England.  No  one  who  has 
ever  read  them  can  forget  his  pilgrimage  with  Colet 
to  Becket's  tomb  at  Canterbury,  with  Colet's  scornful 
snorts,  or  his  visit  with  Aldrich,  the  master  of  Eton,  to 
the  shrine  of  Our  Lady  of  Walsingham.  In  the  whole 
collection  there  is  probably  nothing  which  he  had  not 
himself  seen  and  heard,  and  the  "  Colloquies,"  which  in 
their  own  day  had  unbounded  popularity,  can  still  be 
read  with  delight  in  our  own.  Works  of  science  and 
history,  famous  at  their  appearance  and  in  front  of 
advancing  knowledge,  fall  out  of  date,  become  insipid, 
and  are  forgotten.  A  genuine  work  of  art  retains  its 
flavour  to  the  end  of  time. 

Occasionally  in  his  letters  we  find  adventures  of 
his  own  which  might  have  served  for  an  additional 
chapter  in  the  "  Colloquies."  I  mentioned  his  illness 
at  Bale  in  the  summer  of  1518.  On  his  recovery  in 
the  autumn  he  had  to  return  to  Louvain.  He  went 
back  with  a  heavy  heart,  expecting  to  find  his  tormen- 
tors there.  He  reached  Louvain  so  ill  that  he  was 
confined  to  his  room  for  six  weeks,  and  the  surgeons 
thought  his  disorder  had  been  the  plague.  The  de- 
scription of  his  journey  which  he  gave  to  Beatus  lihen- 
anus  is  a  companion  picture  to  the  journey  to  Brin- 
disi.1 

Listen  to  the  tragedy  of  my  adventures.  I  left 
Bale  relaxed  and  worn  out  as  one  out  of  favour  with 

1  Ep.  ccclvii.,  abridged. 


222  Life  and  Letters,  of  Erasmus. 

the  gods.  The  river  part  of  niy  journey  was  well 
enough,  save  for  the  heat  of  the  sun.  We  dined  at 
Breisach.  Dinner  abominable.  Foul  smells  and  flies 
in  swarms.  We  were  kept  waiting  half  an  hour 
while  the  precious  banquet  was  preparing.  There  was 
nothing  that  I  could  eat,  every  dish  filthy  and  stink- 
ing. At  night  we  were  turned  out  of  the  boat  into  a 
village  —  the  name  I  forget,  and  I  would  not  write 
it  if  I  remembered.  It  nearly  made  an  end  of  me. 
There  were  sixty  of  us  to  sup  together  in  the  tavern, 
a  medley  of  human  animals  in  one  small  heated  room. 
It  was  ten  o'clock,  and,  oh!  the  dirt  and  the  noise, 
especially  after  the  wine  had  begun  to  circulate.  The 
cries  of  the  boatmen  woke  us  in  the  morning.  I 
hurry  on  board  unsupped  and  unslept.  At  nine  we 
reached  Strasburg,  when  things  mended  a  little. 
Scherer,  a  friend,  supplied  us  with  wine,  and  other 
accpiaintances  called  to  see  me.  From  Strasburg  we 
went  on  to  Speyer.  We  had  been  told  that  part  of 
the  army  would  be  there,  but  we  saw  nothing  of 
them.  My  English  horse  had  broken  down,  a  wretch 
of  a  blacksmith  having  burnt  his  foot  with  a  hot  shoe. 
I  escaped  the  inn  at  Speyer  and  was  entertained  by 
my  friend  the  Dean.  Two  pleasant  days  with  him, 
thence  in  a  carriage  to  Worms  and  so  on  to  Mentz, 
where  I  was  again  lodged  by  a  Cathedral  canon.  So 
far  things  had  gone  tolerably  with  me.  The  smell  of 
the  horses  was  disagreeable  and  the  pace  was  slow, 
but  that  was  the  worst.  At  a  village  further  on  I 
call  on  my  friend  Christopher,  the  wine-merchant,  to 
his  great  delight.  On  his  table  I  saw  the  works  of 
Erasmus.  He  invited  a  party  to  meet  me,  sent  the 
boatmen  a  pitcher  of  wine  and  promised  to  let  them 
off  the  customs  duty  as  a  reward  for  having  brought 
him  so  great  a  man.  Thence  to  Bonn,  thence  to  Co- 
logne, which  we  reached  early  on  Sunday  morning.1 

Imagine  a  wine-merchant  reading  my  books  and 
given  to  the  study  of  the  Muses.  Christ  said  the 
publicans  and  the  harlots  would  go  into  the  kingdom 

1  Ep.  ccexxxix. 


Lecture  XL  223 

of  heaven  before  the  Pharisees.  Priests  and  monks 
live  for  their  bellies,  and  vintners  take  to  literature. 
But,  alas,  the  red  wine  which  he  sent  to  the  boatmen 
took  the  taste  of  the  bargeman's  wife,  a  red-faced  sot 
of  a  woman.  She  drank  it  to  the  last  drop,  and  then 
flew  to  arms  and  almost  murdered  a  servant  wench 
with  oyster-shells.  Then  she  rushed  on  deck,  tackled 
her  husband,  and  tried  to  pitch  him  overboard.  There 
is  vinal  energy  for  you. 

At  the  hotel  at  Cologne  I  ordered  breakfast  at  ten 
o'clock,  with  a  carriage  and  pair  to  be  ready  immedi- 
ately after.  I  went  to  church,  came  back  to  find  no 
breakfast,  and  a  carriage  not  to  be  had.  My  horse 
being  disabled,  I  tried  to  hire  another.  I  was  told 
this  could  not  be  done  either.  I  saw  what  it  meant. 
I  was  to  be  kept  at  Cologne,  and  I  did  not  choose  to 
be  kept;  so  I  ordered  my  poor  nag  to  be  saddled, 
lame  as  he  was,  with  another  for  my  servant,  and  I 
started  on  a  five  hours'  journey  for  the  Count  of  New 
Eagle.  I  had  five  pleasant  days  with  the  Count, 
whom  I  found  a  young  man  of  sense.  I  had  meant, 
if  the  autumn  was  fine,  to  go  on  to  England  and  close 
with  the  King's  repeated  offers  to  me.  From  this 
dream  I  was  precipitated  into  a  gulf  of  perdition.  A 
carriage  had  been  ordered  for  me  for  the  next  morn- 
ing. The  Count  would  not  take  leave  of  me  over- 
night, meaning  to  see  me  before  I  started.  The  night 
was  wild.  I  rose  before  dawn  to  finish  off  some  work. 
At  seven,  the  Count  not  appearing,  I  sent  to  call  him. 
He  came,  and  protested  that  I  must  not  leave  his 
house  in  such  weather.  I  must  have  lost  half  my 
mind  when  I  went  to  Cologne.  My  evil  genius  now 
carried  off  the  other  half.  Go  I  would,  in  an  open 
carriage,  with  wind  enough  to  tear  up  oak-trees.  It 
came  from  the  south  and  charged  with  pestilence. 
Towai'ds  evening  wind  changed  to  rain.  I  reached 
Aix  shaken  to  pieces  by  the  bad  roads.  I  should 
have  done  better  on  my  lame  horse.  At  Aix  a  canon 
to  whom  the  Count  had  recommended  me  carried  me 
off   to   the    house  of   the   Px'ecentor  to   sup.     Other 


224  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Cathedral  dignitaries  were  also  of  the  party.  My 
light  breakfast  had  sharpened  my  appetite,  and  there 
was  nothing-  to  eat  bnt  cold  carp.  I  filled  myself  as 
I  could,  and  went  early  to  Led  under  plea  that  I  had 
not  slept  the  night  before.  Next  day  I  was  taken  to 
the  Vice-Provost,  whose  table  usually  was  well  pro- 
vided, but  on  this  occasion,  owing  to  the  weather,  he 
had  nothing  to  offer  but  eels.  These  I  could  not 
touch,  and  I  had  to  fall  back  on  salt  cod,  called 
"  bacalao,"  from  the  sticks  they  beat  it  with.  It  was 
almost  raw.  Breakfast  over,  I  returned  to  the  inn 
and  ordered  a  fire.  The  canon  stayed  an  hour  and  a 
half  talking.  My  stomach  then  went  into  a  crisis.  A 
finger  in  my  mouth  brought  on  vomiting.  Up  came 
the  raw  cod,  and  I  lay  down  exhausted.  The  pain 
passed  off.  I  settled  with  the  driver  about  my  lug- 
gage, and  was  then  called  to  the  table  d'hote  supper. 
I  tried  to  excuse  myself.  I  knew  by  experience  that 
I  ought  to  touch  nothing  but  warm  sops.  However, 
they  had  made  their  preparations  for  me,  so  attend  I 
must.  After  the  soup  I  retreated  to  the  Precentor's 
to  sleep.  Another  wild  night.  Breakfast  in  the 
morning,  a  mouthful  of  bread  and  a  cup  of  warm 
beer,  and  then  to  my  lame  beast.  I  ought  to  have 
been  in  bed,  but  I  ""disliked  Aix  and  its  ways,  and 
longed  to  be  off.  I  had  been  suffering  from  piles, 
and  the  riding  increased  the  inflammation.  After  a 
few  miles  we  came  to  the  bridge  over  the  Meuse, 
where  I  had  some  broth,  and  thence  on  to  Tongres. 
The  pain  then  grew  horrible.  I  would  have  walked, 
but  I  was  afraid  of  perspiring  or  being  out  after 
nightfall.  I  reached  Tongres  very  ill  all  over.  I 
slept,  however,  a  little ;  had  some  warm  beer  again 
in  the  morning,  and  ordered  a  close  carriage.  The 
road  turned  out  to  be  paved  with  flint.  I  coidd  not 
bear  the  jolting,  and  mounted  one  of  the  horses.  A 
sudden  chill,  and  I  fainted,  and  was  put  back  into 
the  carriage.  After  a  while  I  recovered  a  little,  and 
again  tried  to  ride.  In  the  evening  I  was  sick,  and 
told  the  driver  I  would  pay  him  double  if  he  would 


Lecture  XL  225 

bring  me  early  to  my  next  stage.  A  miserable  night 
—  suffering  dreadful.  In  the  morning  I  found  there 
was  a  carriage  with  four  horses  going  straight  through 
to  Louvain.  I  engaged  it  and  arrived  the  next  night 
in  an  agony  of  pain.  Fearing  that  my  own  rooms 
would  be  cold,  I  drove  to  the  house  of  my  kind  friend 
Theodoric,  the  printer.  An  ulcer  broke  in  the  night, 
and  I  was  easier.  I  send  for  a  surgeon.  He  finds 
another  on  my  back  ;  glands  swollen  and  boils  form- 
ing all  over  me.  He  tells  Theodoric's  servant  that 
I  have  the  plague,  and  that  he  will  not  come  near 
me  again.  Theodoric  brings  the  message.  I  don't 
believe  it.  I  send  for  a  Jew  doctor,  who  wishes  his 
body  was  as  sound  as  mine.  The  surgeon  persists 
that  it  is  the  plague,  and  so  does  his  father.  I  call 
in  the  best  physician  in  the  town,  who  says  that  he 
would  have  no  objection  to  sleep  with  me.  The  He- 
brew holds  to  his  opinion.  Another  fellow  makes  a 
long  face  at  the  ulcers.  I  give  him  a  gold  crown,  and 
tell  him  to  come  again  the  next  day,  which  he  refuses 
to  do.  I  send  doctors  to  the  devil,  commend  myself 
to  Christ,  and  am  well  in  three  days.  Who  could  be- 
lieve that  this  frail  body  of  mine  could  have  borne 
such  a  shaking?  When  I  was  young  I  was  greatly 
afraid  of  dying.  I  fear  it  less  as  I  grow  older.  Hap- 
piness does  not  depend  on  age.  I  am  now  fifty,  a 
term  of  life  which  many  do  not  reach,  and  I  cannot 
complain  that  I  have  not  lived  long  enough. 

You  will  tell  me,  perhaps,  that  all  this  is  not  his- 
tory. Well,  if  history  consists  of  the  record  of  the 
fragments  of  actions  preserved  by  tradition,  attributed 
to  wooden  figures  called  men  and  women,  interpreted 
successively  by  philosophic  writers  according  to  their 
own  notions  of  probability,  and  arranged  to  teach  con- 
stitutional lessons,  certainly  it  is  not  history.  But  if 
by  history  we  mean  as  much  as  we  can  learn  of  the 
character  and  doings  of  past  generations  of  real  hu- 
man creatures  who  would  bleed  if  we  pricked  them, 


226  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

then  a  letter  like  this,  bringing  as  it  does  such  a  crowd 
of  figures  before  us  in  the  working  dress  of  common 
life,  is  very  historical  indeed.  Boatmen,  bargemen, 
drunken  bargemen's  wives,  literary  wine-merchants, 
taverns  and  tavern  dinners,  canons  and  precentors 
eager  to  recognise  the  great  man  and  poison  him  with 
cold  carp  and  bacalao,  carriages,  horses,  bad  roads, 
sixteenth-century  surgeons  —  there,  in  a  few  pages, 
we  have  it  all  alive  before  us,  whether  philosophy  can 
make  anything  out  of  it  or  not. 

Unfortunate  Erasmus  !  No  sooner  was  he  quit  of 
his  bodily  tortures  than  his  old  enemies  opened  fire 
again  upon  him.  He  sent  Colet  a  short  account  of 
his  calamities  on  his  journey,  with  a  glimpse  of  the 
condition  of  his  mind :  — 

You  often  call  Erasmus  unlucky.  What  would 
you  call  him  if  you  saw  him  now  ?  Who  would  credit 
me  with  strength  to  survive  such  a  tossing,  to  say  no- 
thing of  sycophant  divines  who  bite  at  my  back  when 
to  my  face  they  dare  not  ?  The  [new  edition  of  the] 
New  Testament  will  be  out  soon.  The  Comments  on 
the  Apostolic  Epistles  are  in  the  press.  The  Para- 
phrases will  follow.  The  Archbishop  of  Mentz,  still 
a  young  man,  has  disgraced  himself  by  accepting  a 
cardinal's  hat  and  becoming  a  Pope's  monk.  Oh,  my 
dear  Colet,  what  a  fate  for  a  human  soul !  We  make 
tyrants  out  of  priests  and  gods  out  of  men.  Princes, 
popes,  Turks  combine  to  make  the  world  miserable. 
Christ  grows  obsolete,  and  is  going  the  way  of  Moses. 

Faster  and  faster  copies  of  the  New  Testament 
spread  over  Europe,  and  with  it  the  wrath  of  the 
orthodox.  The  Pope  had  refused  their  request  for  an 
official  examination  of  Erasmus's  work.  Eager  indi- 
viduals rushed  in  with  their  separate  complaints,  and 
over  France,  England,  and  Germany  monks  and 
priests  were  denouncing  the  errors  which  they  ima- 


Lecture  XL  227 

srined  themselves  to  have  discovered.  For  the  first 
time  it  had  to  be  explained  to  them  that  the  Bible 
was  a  book,  and  had  a  meaning  like  other  books. 
Pious,  ignorant  men  had  regarded  the  text  of  the 
Vulgate  as  sacred,  and  probably  inspired.  Read  it 
intelligently  they  could  not,  but  they  had  made  the 
language  into  an  idol,  and  they  were  filled  with  horri- 
fied amazement  when  they  found  in  page  after  page 
that  Erasmus  had  anticipated  modern  criticism,  cor- 
recting the  text,  introducing  various  readings,  and 
retranslating  passages  from  the  Greek  into  a  new 
version.  He  had  altered  a  word  in  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Horror  of  horrors!  he  had  changed  the  translation 
of  the  mystic  Ao'yos  from  Verbum  into  Sermo,  to  make 
people  understand  what  Adyos  meant.  The  wildest 
stories  were  set  flying.  Erasmus  was  accused  of  hav- 
ing called  the  Gospel  an  old  woman's  fable.  He  had 
merely  rendered  a-vWakovvra  into  confabulantes.  A 
preacher  at  Louvain,  cursing  Luther  as  a  heretic  and 
Antichrist,  charged  Erasmus  and  literature  with  the 
guilt  of  having  produced  him,  and  said  that  the  desire 
for  knowledge  had  been  the  origin  of  all  the  misery 
in  the  world,  as  if  it  had  not  been  notorious,  as  Eras- 
mus observes,  that  Luther  had  been  educated  entirely 
on  the  schoolmen,  and  knew  nothing  of  literature. 
His  old  enemy,  Egmond,  declared  that  the  publication 
of  Erasmus's  New  Testament  was  the  coming  of  Anti- 
christ. Erasmus  asked  him  what  he  had  found  there 
to  offend  him.  He  answered  that  he  had  never  looked 
into  the  book,  and  never  would.  An  English  divine 
(Erasmus  himself  tells  the  story)  was  one  day  preach- 
ing: before  the  King.  He  used  the  occasion  to  de- 
nounce  the  new  studies,  and  Greek  especially.  Dr. 
Pace,  who  was  present,  looked  at  Henry.  Henry 
smiled,  and  after  the  sermon  sent  for  the  preacher 


228  Life  and  Letters  of  LJrasmus. 

and  sent  for  Sir  T.  More  to  discuss  the  question 
between  them.  The  preacher  had  trusted  to  pulpit 
irresponsibility.  He  fell  on  his  knees,  and  pleaded 
that  the  Spirit  had  moved  him.  The  King  said  it 
must  have  been  a  foolish  spirit.  The  preacher  had 
denounced  Erasmus  by  name.  Henry  asked  him  if 
he  had  read  any  of  Erasmus's  writings.  He  said  he 
had  read  something  called  "  Moria."  Pace  observed 
that  he  was  not  surprised ;  his  argument  smelt  of  it. 
The  man  said  that  perhaps  Greek  might  be  innocent 
after  all,  as  it  was  derived  from  Hebrew.  The  King 
sent  him  about  his  business,  and  ordered  that  he 
should  never  preach  before  the  Court  again. 

A  bishop,  who  was  one  of  Queen  Catherine's  con- 
fessors, had  abused  Erasmus  to  her  with  similar  non- 
sense. The  Queen  one  day  asked  a  friend  of  Erasmus 
whether  Jerome  was  not  a  learned  man,  and  whether 
he  was  not  in  heaven.  "  Yes,  certainly,"  was  the  an- 
swer. "  Why  then,"  said  she,  "  does  Erasmus  correct 
Jerome?     Is  he  wiser  than  Jerome  ?  " 

"  Such  stuff,"  said  Erasmus,  commenting  on  these 
stories,  "  is  taught  seriously  by  pillars  of  the  Church 
and  champions  of  the  Christian  religion.  I  shall 
argue  no  more.  I  am  a  veteran  and  have  earned  my 
discharge,  and  must  leave  the  fighting  to  younger  men." 

There  was  to  be  no  discharge  for  Erasmus  while  the 
breath  was  in  him.  More  unwelcome  than  the  attacks 
of  monks  or  bishops  was  a  letter  which  next  reached 
him.  He  had  avoided  Luther's  books.  He  had 
wished  to  be  able  to  say  that  he  did  not  know  Luther, 
and  had  held  no  communication  with  him.  Luther, 
on  the  other  hand,  naturally  thought  that  Erasmus, 
who  had  so  far  led  the  campaign,  ought  to  stand  his 
friend,  and  ventured  to  appeal  to  him.1     He  wrote 

1  Ep.  cccxcix. 


Lecture  XL  229 

naturally,  simply,  even  humbly.  Erasmus's  splendid 
qualities  had  filled  him,  he  said,  with  admiration,  and 
the  anger  which  Erasmus  had  provoked  was  a  sign 
that  God  was  with  him.  He  apologised  for  venturing 
to  address  so  great  a  man.  His  life  had  been  spent 
among  sophists,  and  he  knew  not  how  to  speak  to  a 
scholar.  "  But  I  trust,"  he  said,  "  that  you  will  let 
me  look  on  you  as  a  brother.  My  fate  is  a  hard  one. 
I,  a  poor  ignorant  creature,  fit  only  to  be  buried  in  a 
corner  out  of  sight  of  sun  and  sky,  have  been  forced 
forward  into  controversy  against  my  natural  will." 

Never  had  any  request  been  addressed  to  Erasmus 
more  entirely  inconvenient  to  him.  He  had  enough 
to  do  to  fight  his  own  battles.  To  take  up  Luther's 
was  to  forfeit  the  Pope's  protection,  which  had  hith- 
erto been  his  best  defence.  The  Pope  let  him  say  all 
that  he  wished  himself.  Why  lose  an  advantage  so 
infinitely  precious  to  him?  Luther  resented  his  hesi- 
tation, and  Protestant  tradition  has  execrated  Eras- 
mus's cowardice.  His  conduct  was  not  perhaps 
heroic,  but  heroism  is  not  always  wisdom.  The 
Luther  who  was  now  wishing  to  be  his  brother  was 
not  the  Luther  of  history,  the  liberator  of  Germany, 
the  regenerator  of  the  Christian  faith.  To  Erasmus  he 
was  merely  an  honest,  and  perhaps  imprudent  monk, 
who  had  broken  out  single-handed  into  a  noisy  revolt. 
Doubtless  the  indulgences  were  preposterous,  and  the 
Church  of  Rome  was  an  Augean  stable  which  wanted 
all  the  waters  of  the  Tiber  through  it ;  but  the  first 
beginners  of  revolutions  are  not  those  who  usually 
bring  them  to  a  successful  conclusion.  Walter  the 
Pennyless  goes  before  Godfrey  of  Bouillon.  The 
generous  and  the  rash  rush  forward  prematurely  with- 
out measuring  the  difficulties  of  the  enterprise,  and 
attack  often  in  the  wrong  place.     The  real  enemy  in 


230  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

the  mind  of  Erasmus  was  not  the  Pope  and  his  indul- 
gences, absurd  as  they  might  be  ;  but  the  gloomy  mass 
of  lies  and  ignorance  which  lay  spread  over  Europe, 
and  the  tyranny  of  a  priesthood  believed  to  possess 
supernatural  powers.  If  cultivated  popes  and  bishops 
like  Leo  and  Archbishop  Warham,  and  hundreds 
more  whom  Erasmus  knew,  would  lend  a  hand  to  help 
education  and  spread  the  knowledge  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament, there  might  be  better  hopes  for  mankind  in 
using  their  assistance  than  in  plunging  into  a  furious 
battle  with  popular  superstition  and  the  Roman  hie- 
rarchy combined. 

Erasmus  may  have  been  wrong.  Times  come  when 
rough  measures  alone  will  answer,  and  Erasmian  edu- 
cation might  have  made  slight  impression  on  the 
Scarlet  Lady  of  Babylon.  But  Erasmus  was  not 
bound  to  know  it,  and  I  think  it  rather  to  his  credit 
that  he  met  Luther's  advances  as  favourably  as  he 
did. 

I  knew  various  persons  of  high  reputation  a  few 
years  ago  who  thought  at  bottom  very  much  as  Bishop 
Colenso  thought,  who  nevertheless  turned  and  rent 
him  to  clear  their  own  reputations,  which  they  did 
not  succeed  in  doing.  Erasmus  was  no  saint.  He 
thought  Luther  an  upright,  good  man,  if  not  a  wise 
one,  and  he  was  too  intellectually  honest  to  conceal 
his  real  convictions.  How  he  behaved  under  his 
temptation  we  shall  see  in  the  next  lecture. 


LECTURE  XII. 

The  moderate  reformer  always  resents  the  intrusion 
of  the  advanced  Radical  into  work  which  he  has  been 
himself  conducting  with  caution  and  success.  He  sees 
his  own  operations  discredited,  his  supporters  alienated, 
his  enemies  apparently  entitled  to  appeal  to  the  fulfil- 
ment of  their  prophecies,  the  leadership  snatched  out  of 
his  hands  and  passed  on  to  more  thorough  going  rivals. 
He  is  not  to  be  hastily  blamed  if  he  is  in  a  hurry 
to  disconnect  himself  from  hot  spirits  whom  he  cannot 
govern  and  whose  objects  extend  beyond  what  he  him- 
self desires  or  approves.  If  Erasmus  had  publicly 
washed  his  hands  of  Luther  and  advised  his  suppres- 
sion, he  would  have  done  no  more  than  any  ordinary 
party  leader  would  have  done  in  the  same  position. 
His  real  action  was  absolutely  different.  Aleander, 
the  Papal  Nuncio,  had  brought  the  Bull  condemning 
Luther  to  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  had  called  on  the 
Elector  in  the  Pope's  name  to  order  Luther's  works 
to  be  burnt,  to  seize  Luther  himself,  and  either  execute 
the  papal  sentence  or  send  his  heretical  subject  as  a 
prisoner  to  Rome.  It  was  no  easy  matter  for  a  sub- 
ordinate prince  of  the  German  empire  to  fly  in  the  face 
of  the  spiritual  ruler  of  Christendom.  The  Elector 
knew  Erasmus  only  by  reputation,  but  to  Erasmus  he 
turned  for  advice,  and  went  to  Cologne  to  see  Erasmus 
personally,  and  consult  with  him  as  to  what  should  be 
done.  Erasmus  told  the  Elector  that  Luther  had  com- 
mitted two  unpardonable  crimes  —  he  had  touched  the 


232  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Pope  on  the  crown  and  the  monks  in  the  belly  ;  but 
however  that  might  be,  a  German  subject  ought  not 
to  be  given  up  to  destruction  till  his  faults  had  been 
proved  against  him.  Luther  had  always  professed 
himself  willing  to  argue  the  question  of  the  indul- 
gences, and  to  submit  if  they  were  shown  to  be  legiti- 
mate. He  had  been  so  far  a  quiet  peaceful  man,  with 
an  unblemished  reputation,  which  was  more  than 
could  be  said  of  many  of  his  accusers.  The  Pope's 
Bull  had  offended  every  reasonable  man,  and,  in  fact, 
he  advised  the  Elector  to  refuse  till  the  cause  had 
been  publicly  heard.  The  advice  was  the  more  cred- 
itable to  Erasmus,  because  he  knew  that  if  it  came  to 
a  struggle  he  would  be  himself  in  danger.  He  was 
not  inclined  to  be  a  martyr,  and  in  extremity  meant 
to  imitate  St.  Peter.  So  at  least  he  said,  but  perhaps 
he  would  have  been  better  than  his  word.  He  wrote 
to  the  President  of  Holland,  strongly  deprecating  the 
Pope's  action.  "  I  am  surprised,"  he  said,  "  that  the 
Pope  should  have  sent  Commissioners  on  the  business 
so  violent  and  ignorant.  Cardinal  Cajetan  is  arrogant 
and  overbearing  ;  Miltitz  is  little  better ;  and  Alean- 
der  is  a  maniac  "  —  worse  indeed  than  a  maniac,  in 
Erasmus's  secret  opinion.1  Aleander  had  been  bred 
in  the  Court  of  Alexander  VI.  The  Court  of  Rome 
had  determined  one  way  or  another  to  rid  themselves 
of  the  troublesome  Saxon  monk.  If  he  could  not  be 
disposed  of  in  the  regular  fashion,  there  were  other 
methods.  "  They  will  now  probably  take  Luther  off 
by  poison,"  Erasmus  wrote,  "  as  certain  of  his  defen- 
ders have  been  removed  in  Paris.  This  possibly  is 
among  the  instructions  :  that  when  the  enemies  of  the 
Holy  See  cannot  be  got  rid  of  otherwise,  they  may  be 

1  To  Nicholas  Everard,  President  of  Holland.    Ep.  eccxvii.,  second 
series,  abridged. 


Lecture  XII  233 

taken  off  by  poison  with  his  Holiness's  blessing. 
Everyone  is  an  enemy  of  the  Faith  with  these  harpies 
if  he  will  not  submit  to  them  in  everything.  Aleander 
is  an  old  hand  at  such  business.  He  asked  me  to  dine 
with  him  at  Cologne.  He  was  so  urgent  that  I  thought 
it  prudent  to  decline."  2  "  The  apostolic  rod  no  longer 
sufficing,"  he  says  elsewhere,  "  they  will  first  try  pris- 
ons, chains,  stake,  and  gallows,  cannon  and  armies,  and 
if  these  won't  do  they  will  fall  back  on  the  cup." 

In  the  middle  of  the  crisis  the  old  Emperor  Maxi- 
milian died.  The  imperial  crown  fell  vacant.  The 
Elector  of  Saxony  had  but  to  consent  to  be  chosen  to 
be  unanimously  elected.  The  situation  seemed  less 
dangerous,  and  Erasmus  was  able  to  answer  Luther's 
letter  to  him.  He  calls  him  "  his  dearest  brother  in 
Christ."  He  thanked  Luther  for  desiring  his  friend- 
ship, and  spoke  of  the  storm  which  he  had  caused.2 

Had  I  not  seen  it  with  my  own  eyes  (he  wrote)  I 
could  not  have  believed  that  the  theologians  would 
have  gone  so  mad.  It  is  like  the  plague.  All  Lou- 
vain  is  infected.  I  have  told  them  that  I  do  not  know 
you  personally  ;  that  I  neither  approve  nor  disapprove 
your  writings,  for  I  have  not  read  them,  but  that  they 
ought  to  read  them  before  they  spoke  so  loudly.  I 
suggested,  too,  that  the  subjects  on  which  you  have 
written  were  not  of  a  sort  to  be  declaimed  on  from 
pulpits,  and  that,  as  your  character  was  admitted  to 
be  spotless,  denouncing  and  cursing  were  not  precisely 
in  place.  It  was  of  no  use.  They  are  mad  as  ever. 
They  do  not  argue  because  they  cannot,  and  they 
trust  entirely  to  evil  speaking.  I  am  myself  the  chief 
object  of  animosity.  The  bishops  generally  are  on  my 
side  and  against  them,  and  this  makes  them  savage. 

1  "  Fortassis  hoe  in  mandatis  est,  at  qnoniam  alitor  vinci  non  possunt 
hostes  Sedis  Romanse  veneno  tollantur  cum  benedictione  Pontificis.  Hac 
arte  valet  Aleander.  Is  ine  (.■(•Ionia1  inipensissinierogavit  ad  i»randium. 
Ego  quo  magis  ille  instabat  hoc  pertinacius  excusavi."    Ibid. 

2  Ep.  ccecxxvii.,  abridged. 


234  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

I  can  only  despise  them.  Wild  beasts  are  tamed  by 
gentleness  ;  they  are  only  made  more  ferocious  by  it. 
For  yourself,  you  have  good  friends  in  England, 
even  among  the  greatest  persons  there.  You  have 
friends  here  too  —  one  in  particular.  As  to  me,  my 
business  is  with  literature.  I  confine  myself  to  it  as 
far  as  I  can,  and  keep  aloof  from  other  quarrels  ;  but, 
generally,  I  think  courtesy  to  opponents  is  more  effec- 
tive than  violence.  Paul  abolished  the  Jewish  law  by 
making  it  into  an  allegory ;  and  it  might  be  wiser  of 
you  to  denounce  those  who  misuse  the  Pope's  author- 
ity than  to  censure  the  Pope  himself.  So  also  with 
kings  and  princes.  Old  institutions  cannot  be  rooted 
up  in  an  instant.  Quiet  argument  may  do  more  than 
wholesale  condemnation.  Avoid  all  appearance  of  se- 
dition. Keep  cool.  Do  not  get  angry.  Do  not  hate 
anybody.  Do  not  be  excited  over  the  noise  which  you 
have  made.  I  have  looked  into  your  "  Commentary 
on  the  Psalms,"  and  am  much  pleased  with  it.  The 
prior  of  a  monastery  at  Antwerp  is  devoted  to  you, 
and  says  he  was  once  your  pupil.  He  preaches  Christ 
and  Christ  only.  Christ  give  you  His  spirit,  for  His 
own  glory  and  the  world's  good. 

On  the  whole  I  think  this  letter  extremely  honour- 
able to  Erasmus.  It  says  no  more  and  no  less  than 
he  really  felt,  and  it  was  one  of  those  many  instances 
where  truth  serves  a  man  better  than  the  subtlest  sub- 
terfuge ;  for  the  letter  was  immediately  printed  by 
Luther's  friends,  and  perhaps  with  Luther's  own  con- 
sent, to  force  Erasmus  to  commit  himself. 

I  suppose  these  hasty  gentlemen  thought  that  he 
must  make  the  plunge  sooner  or  later,  and  that  they 
were  helping  him  over  for  his  own  good.  It  did  not 
answer.  Erasmus  had  said  no  more  to  Luther  than 
what  he  had  said  about  him  to  everyone  else.  He 
could  not  have  extricated  himself  out  of  his  difficulty 
more  simply  or  more  sensibly. 


Lecture  XII.  235 

He  was  himself  beset  with  other  correspondents  be- 
sides Luther.  His  answers  are  always  full,  consistent 
and  pointed. 

A  Bohemian  student  had  written  to  invite  him  to 
Prague.  He  could  not  go  to  Prague,  but  was  pleased 
to  hear  that  he  was  appreciated  there.  He  was  a  harm- 
less person,  he  said  ;  he  had  never  hurt  anybody,  and 
was  surprised  at  the  outcry  against  him.  He  had 
perceived  that  theology  had  grown  thorny  and  frigid ; 
the  early  Fathers  were  neglected,  and  he  had  merely 
tried  to  recall  men  to  the  original  fountain  of  the 
faith.  The  signs  in  the  sky  were  ugly  and  portended 
a  schism. 

So  many  cardinals,  bishops,  princes  in  the  world, 
and  not  one  ready  to  take  up  reform  in  a  Christian 
spirit.  Were  St.  Paul  Pope,  he  would  part  with  some 
of  his  wealth  —  yes,  and  some  of  his  authority  too, 
if  he  could  restore  peace  to  the  Church. 

Cardinal  Campegio  told  Erasmus  he  was  suspected 
of  having  stirred  the  fire  with  anonymous  books  and 
pamphlets.  He  protested  that  he  had  stirred  no  fire, 
and  had  published  nothing  to  which  he  had  not  set 

his  name. 

His  mind  was  still  turning  to  his  English  friends. 
In  May  1519,  he  writes  a  remarkable  letter,  from 
Antwerp,  to  Sir  Henry  Guildford,  the  King's  master 
of  the  horse.1 

The  world  is  waking  out  of  a  long  deep  sleep.  The 
old  ignorance  is  still  defended  with  tooth  and  claw,  but 
we  have  kings  and  nobles  now  on  our  side.  Strange 
vicissitude  of  things.  Time  was  when  learning  was 
only  found  in  the  religious  orders.  The  religious 
orders  nowadays  care  only  for  money  and  sensual- 
ity, while  learning  has  passed  to  secular  princes  and 

1  Ep.  ccccxvii.,  abridged. 


236  Life  and  Letters  of  J?rasmu$. 

peers  and  courtiers.  Where  in  school  or  monastery 
will  you  find  so  many  distinguished  and  accomplished 
men  as  form  your  English  Court  ?  Shame  on  us  all ! 
The  tables  of  priests  and  divines  run  with  wine  and 
echo  with  drunken  noise  and  scurrilous  jest,  while  in 
princes'  halls  is  heard  only  grave  and  modest  conver- 
sation on  points  of  morals  or  knowledge.  Your  king 
leads  the  rest  by  his  example.  In  ordinary  accom- 
plishments he  is  above  most  and  inferior  to  none. 
Where  will  you  find  a  man  so  acute,  so  copious,  so 
soundly  judging,  or  so  dignified  in  word  and  manner  ? 
Time  was  when  I  held  off  from  royal  courts.  To  such 
a  court  as  yours  I  would  transfer  myself  and  all  that 
belongs  to  me  if  age  and  health  allowed.  Who  will 
say  now  that  learning  makes  kings  effeminate? 
Where  is  a  finer  soldier  than  your  Henry  VIII., 
where  a  sounder  legislator  ?  Who  is  keener  in  coun- 
cil, who  a  stricter  administrator,  who  more  careful  in 
choosing  his  ministers,  or  more  anxious  for  the  peace 
of  the  world  ?  That  king  of  yours  may  bring  back 
the  golden  age,  though  I  shall  not  live  to  enjoy  it,  as 
my  tale  draws  to  an  end. 

On  the  same  day  Erasmus  writes  to  Henry  him- 
self :  1  — 

The  heart  of  a  king  is  in  the  hands  of  God.  When 
God  means  well  to  any  nation  he  gives  it  a  king  who 
deserves  a  throne.  Perhaps  after  so  many  storms  He 
now  looks  on  us  with  favour,  having  inspired  the  pres- 
ent reigning  monarchs  with  a  desire  for  peace  and  the 
restoration  of  piety.  To  you  is  due  the  highest  praise. 
No  prince  is  better  prepared  for  war,  and  none  more 
wishes  to  avoid  it,  knowing,  as  you  do,  how  deadly  a 
scourge  is  war  to  the  mass  of  mankind,  while  you  have 
so  well  used  your  respite  that  you  have  cleared  the 
roads  of  robbers  —  so  long  the  scourge  and  reproach 
of  England  ;  you  have  suppressed  vagabonds ;  you 
have  strengthened  your  laws,  repealed  the  bad  ones, 
and  supplied  defects.    You  have  encouraged  learning. 

1  E]p.  ccccxviii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XII.  237 

You  have  improved  discipline  among  the  monks  and 
clergy.  You  have  recognised  that  a  pure  and  noble 
race  of  men  is  a  finer  ornament  to  your  realm  than 
warlike  trophies  or  splendid  edifices.  You  make  your- 
self the  pattern  of  what  you  prescribe  for  others.  The 
king's  command  goes  far,  but  the  king's  example  goes 
further.  Who  better  keeps  the  law  than  you  keep  it  ? 
Who  less  seeks  unworthy  objects  ?  Who  is  truer  to 
his  word  ?  Who  is  juster  and  fairer  in  all  that  he 
does  ?  In  what  household,  in  what  college  or  univer- 
sity will  you  find  more  wisdom  and  integrity  than  in 
the  Court  of  England  ?  The  poet's  golden  age,  if  such 
age  ever  was,  comes  back  under  your  Highness.  What 
friend  of  England  does  not  now  congratulate  her? 
What  enemy  does  not  envy  her  good  fortune  ?  By 
their  monarchs'  character  realms  are  ennobled  or  de- 
praved. Future  ages  will  tell  how  England  throve, 
how  virtue  flourished  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII., 
how  the  nation  was  born  again,  how  piety  revived, 
how  learning  grew  to  a  height  which  Italy  may  envy, 
and  how  the  prince  who  reigned  over  it  was  a  rule  and 
pattern  for  all  time  to  come.  Once  I  avoided  kings 
and  courts.  Now  I  would  gladly  migrate  to  England 
if  my  infirmities  allowed.  I  am  but  a  graft  upon  her 
—  not  a  native ;  yet,  when  I  remember  the  years 
which  I  spent  there,  the  friends  I  found  there,  the 
fortune,  small  though  it  be,  which  I  owe  to  her,  I  re- 
joice in  England's  felicity  as  if  she  were  my  natural 
mother.  .  .  .  For  yourself,  the  intelligence  of  your 
country  will  preserve  the  memory  of  your  virtues, 
and  scholars  will  tell  how  a  king  once  reigned  there 
who  in  his  own  person  revived  the  virtues  of  the  an- 
cient heroes.1 

I  seriously  believe  that  this  will  be  the  final  verdict 
of  English  history  on  Henry  VIII.  What  Erasmus 
says  of  him  is  no  more  after  all  than  what  Reginald 

1  "  Grasca  pariter  ac  Latina  facundia  grata  tuis  erga  se  meritis  sem- 
per loquetur  apud  Britannos  fnisse  quendam  Henricum  Octavum  qui 
unus  tot  heroura  dotes  ac  decora  suis  retulerit." 


238  Life  an<l  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Pole  said  of  the  promise  of  his  youth ;  and  Pole's 
opinion  only  changed  when  Henry  turned  against  the 
Pope.  I  have  compressed  the  flow  of  Erasmus's  elo- 
quence, and  have  omitted  some  parts  of  it.  One  of 
these  omissions  contains  what  is,  perhaps,  the  most 
curious  passage  in  the  whole  letter.  Going  through 
the  catalogue  of  Henry's  literary  excellences,  Erasmus 
mentions  with  special  praise  a  position  which  Henry 
had  lately  defended  against  an  eminent  divine : 
"  Utrum  laicus  obligaretur  ad  vocalem  orationem  ?  " 
—  "Whether  a  layman  was  obliged  to  say  his  prayers 
in  words?  It  is  not  said  which  side  Henry  took  in 
the  discussion  ;  but  the  raising  of  such  a  question  at 
all  throws  an  interesting  light  on  the  condition  of 
theological  opinion. 

The  vacancy  of  the  imperial  throne  for  a  time  para- 
lysed authority  in  Germany.  Erasmus  describes 
Brussels  in  the  following  month  as  in  a  state  of 
panic ;  doctors  of  theology  stirring  tragedies,  mining 
and  plotting,  with  open  war  close  ahead  against  the 
new  learning. 

Would  (he  said)  that  we  had  such  a  prince  here 
as  they  have  in  England.  The  King  of  England  is 
well  read,  has  a  keen  intelligence,  supports  literature 
openly,  and  shuts  the  mouths  of  the  enemy.  The  Car- 
dinal of  York  is  equally  decided,  and  so  is  Campegio,1 
who  is  one  of  the  best  and  most  learned  men  living. 
The  English  Court  contains  at  present  more  persons 
of  real  knowledge  and  ability  than  any  university  in 
Europe.  The  German  princes  are  doing  almost  as 
well.  It  is  only  here  in  Flanders  that  we  hang  be- 
hind. The  Archduke  Ferdinand  is  an  admirable 
youth.  He  delights  in  me  and  my  writings,  and  the 
"Institution  of  a  Christian  Prince"  is  seldom  out  of 
his  hands.  They  wanted  me  to  be  his  tutor,  and  he 
1  Campegio  held  an  English  bishopric  —  Salisbury. 


Lecture  XII.  239 

seemed  to  wish  it  himself.  My  health  and  my  dislike 
of  courts  stand  in  the  way.  It  would  perhaps  kill  me, 
and  I  should  he  of  no  use  to  anyone,  while  as  long  as 
I  keep  alive  I  can  at  least  use  my  pen. 

The  fate  of  Europe  seemed  to  turn  on  the  choice  of 
Maximilian's  successor.  The  new  emperor,  whoever 
he  might  be,  would  have  to  declare  for  Luther  or  de- 
clare for  the  Pope.  According  to  law  and  custom, 
the  civil  magistrate  was  bound  to  maintain  truth  as 
well  as  execute  justice.  Truth  in  spiritual  matters 
had  been  hitherto  what  Popes  decreed.  Rome  and 
the  Empire  had  quarrelled  in  earlier  times  over  the 
limits  of  jurisdiction ;  and  whether  Popes  might  de- 
pose sovereigns  was  an  open  question.  But  neither 
Frederic  II.  nor  Henry  IV.  had  pretended  to  a  voice 
in  doctrine.  Popes  and  Councils  had  managed  doc- 
trine. The  Pope  in  issuing  indulgences  had  followed 
recognised  usage,  and  Luther  was  a  rebel.  But  he 
was  a  rebel  so  backed  by  secular  opinion  that  a  mis- 
take in  dealing  with  him  might  throw  Germany  into 
civil  war.  How  Maximilian  would  have  acted  was 
uncertain.  He  had  died  while  he  was  hesitating,  and 
a  new  occupant  was  to  be  found  for  the  crown.  Seven 
electors  chose  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  three  Arch- 
bishops —  Mentz,  Treves,  and  Cologne,  and  four 
princes  —  the  Dukes  of  Saxony  and  Brandenburg,  the 
Count  Palatine,  and  the  King  of  Bohemia.  The 
strongest  candidates  were  Francis  I.  of  France,  and 
Maximilian's  grandson,  Charles.  A  French  sovereign 
was  distasteful  to  the  Germans.  Charles,  though  a 
youth  of  promise,  was  but  nineteen  years  old,  the 
exact  age  of  the  century.  He  was  already  King  of 
Spain  and  the  Indies,  King  of  Naples  and  Sicily,  and 
Archduke  of  Flanders.  There  was  a  natural  fear 
that,  if  Charles  wa,s  chosen,  a  prince  already  so  pow- 


240  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

crful  might  be  dangerous  to  German  liberty.  With 
the  Lutheran  question  in  the  very  front,  and  with 
Frederick  of  Saxony  as  Luther's  protector,  the  elec- 
toral body,  bishops  and  princes,  unanimously  offered 
the  succession  to  one  of  whose  disposition,  at  least  on 
that  point,  no  doubt  could  be  entertained.  But  the 
Elector  of  Saxony  had  other  things  to  think  of  be- 
sides Luther.  The  Pope's  crusade  against  the  Turks, 
instead  of  terrifying  the  Sultan,  was  like  to  bring  the 
Crescent  into  Germany.  The  Elector  of  Saxony  con- 
sidered that  an  Emperor  with  large  resources  of  his 
own  was  essential  to  the  safety  of  Europe  against  the 
foreign  enemy.  He  set  aside  his  ambition,  if  he  had 
any.  He  proposed  Charles,  and  Charles  by  his  influ- 
ence was  chosen.  What  would  Charles  do  ?  He  was 
in  Spain  at  the  moment  of  the  election,  suppressing 
the  revolt  of  the  Comunidades.  He  would  hurry 
back,  of  course,  and  Luther's  affair  would  be  the  first 
problem  to  be  dealt  with.  The  Elector  perhaps  ex- 
pected that  Charles  would  be  guided  by  the  advice  of 
the  prince  to  whom  he  owed  the  throne.  Erasmus  at 
one  time  heard  that  Charles  was  inclined  to  Luther's 
side,  but  felt  no  confidence  either  way,  and,  perhaps, 
distrusted  Charles's  Spanish  blood.  Writing  imme- 
diately that  the  matter  was  decided  to  George  Spala- 
tin,  he  says :  — 

I  think  the  Elector  of  Saxony  deserves  more  praise 
for  refusing  the  crown  than  some  deserved  who  sought 
it.  He  is  fittest  to  wear  a  crown  who  best  knows  the 
weight  of  it.  Let  us  pray  God  that  all  may  go  well. 
These  Provinces  were  delighted  at  first  that  the  choice 
had  fallen  on  their  own  sovereign  ;  but  as  with  all  hu- 
man things,  there  is  some  alloy  with  the  satisfaction. 

Erasmus  himself  had  misgivings. 

In    September    he  writes    to  the   Archbishop   of 


Lecture  XII.  241 

Mentz,  one  of  the  electors,  whom  he  had  so  abused 
for  accepting  a  cardinal's  hat,  but  whom,  nevertheless, 
he  trusted  and  liked :  — 

Everyone  hopes  that  the  new  emperor  will  equal 
his  grandfather.  In  late  centuries  the  imperial  crown 
has  brought  more  glitter  than  power  with  it.  Now, 
happily,  there  will  be  strength  as  well  as  name. 
Hitherto  the  title  of  emperor  has  been  but  a  pretence 
of  sovereignty.  Charles  will  make  the  emperor  into 
a  real  ruler.  He  is  young,  and  Christendom  may 
expect  a  happy  future  under  him.  If  he  chooses,  he 
may  awe  into  submission  the  barbarous  enemies  of 
Christ's  Church.     God  grant  it  may  so  prove  ! 

It  was  an  odd  world.  Cardinal  Albert  was  anions: 
the  most  guilty  in  the  Tetzel  business,  yet  Erasmus 
writes  to  him  as  if  he  believed  him  to  be  on  the  Re- 
forming side,  and  recommends  to  him  specially  Ulrich 
von  Hutten  as  an  ornament  to  the  Church. 

So  far  as  regarded  his  own  prospects,  Erasmus  was 
soon  relieved  of  anxiety.  Among  Charles's  first  acts 
was  to  name  him  an  Imperial  Councillor.  It  was  an 
office  like  our  own  Right  Honourable,  which  had  no 
salary  with  it,  and  was  only  a  feather ;  but  it  was  a 
sign  of  goodwill,  and  as  such  was  welcome.  He 
needed  comfort.  His  dear  friend  Colet  had  just  died 
in  England.  How  dear  may  be  seen  in  the  confes- 
sions of  their  sins,  which  he  and  Colet  had  mutually 
made  to  each  other.  Acquaintances  hide  their  faults 
from  one  another,  and  like  to  appear  at  their  best. 
Real  friends  show  themselves  completely  as  they  are, 
and  few  men  ever  were  more  frank  in  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  their  mutual  defects  than  Colet  and  Erasmus. 
Erasmus  wished  to  write  his  life,  but  perhaps  he  could 
not  have  improved  the  admirable  sketch  which  he  has 
left. 


242  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

He  had  other  troubles,  too,  just  then,  o£  the  sort  that 
never  ended.  The  orthodox  theologians,  rallying  from 
their  first  confusion,  were  falling  systematically  on 
his  New  Testament.  Hochstrat,  the  Hebrew  scholar, 
attacked  him  on  one  side ;  the  Carmelite  Egmond  on 
another ;  Edward  Lee,  who  became  Archbishop  of 
York  afterwards,  and  was  the  most  violent  of  all,  on 
a  third.  He  had  been  careless,  and  made  various 
small  slips,  of  no  consequence  in  themselves,  which 
critics  delight  to  use  to  wound  and  injure  the  person 
criticised.  He  ought  to  have  despised  such  attacks, 
but  his  skin  was  thin,  and  his  letters  are  full  of  com- 
plaints. It  is  a  pity.  The  world  has  much  to  occupy 
it,  and  can  spare  but  moderate  sympathy  for  the  per- 
sonal wrongs  even  of  great  men. 

Most  of  these  lamenting  letters,  however,  contain 
passages  of  high  general  interest. 

TO   THE   BISHOP   OF   EOCHESTEE.1 

October  17,  1519. 
The  Elector  of  Saxony  has  written  to  me  twice. 
He  tells  me  that  in  supporting  Luther  he  is  support- 
ing rather  a  principle  than  a  person.  He  will  not 
permit  innocent  men  to  be  borne  down  in  his  domin- 
ions by  malicious  persons  who  rather  seek  themselves 
than  Christ.  The  other  electors  unanimously  offered 
him  the  crown  the  day  before  Charles  was  chosen, 
nor  would  Charles  have  been  chosen  at  all  without 
the  strong  support  which  the  Elector  of  Saxony  gave 
him.  On  his  own  refusal  they  urged  him  to  say  who 
in  his  opinion  was  the  fittest  candidate.  He  said 
emphatically,  the  King  of  Spain.  They  offered  him 
30,000  florins  as  a  gift.  When  he  would  not  have 
it,  they  begged  that  at  least  10,000  florins  might  be 
distributed  among  his  household.  He  said  his  house- 
hold might  do  as  they  pleased,  but  not  one  of  them 
should  remain  in  his  service  who  accepted  a  farthing. 

1  Ep.  cccclxxiv. 


Lecture  XII  243 

I  heard  this  from  the  Bishop  of  Liege,  who  was  pres- 
ent. We  expect  our  new  emperor  home  from  Spain 
immediately. 

Almost  at  the  same  date  we  have  another  lonsr  and 
interesting  letter  to  Cardinal  Albert.1  Erasmus  had 
introduced  Ulrich  von  Hutten  to  him.  The  Cardinal 
had  sent  him  a  large  silver  cup  by  Von  Hutten's 
hands.  It  was  called  the  cup  of  love,  as  binding  to- 
gether indissolubly  those  who  drank  out  of  it  together. 
Among  the  promotions  which  Charles  or  his  advisers 
had  lately  made  in  Spain,  the  See  of  Toledo,  the  rich- 
est in  the  world,  had  been  given,  with  much  displeas- 
ure among  the  Spaniards,  to  a  young  Flemish  car- 
dinal of  the  house  of  Croy. 

Wishing  (says  Erasmus)  to  try  the  powers  of  your 
present,  I  experimented  with  it  on  the  Cardinal  of 
Croy,  who  came  lately  to  see  me.  I  drank  out  of  it 
to  him,  and  he  drank  to  me.  The  Cardinal  is  a  for- 
tunate youth,  and  deserves  his  luck.  I  am  sorry  your 
cup  did  not  reach  me  sooner.  The  Louvain  Doctors 
and  I  had  lately  made  a  truce  on  condition  that  we 
should  each  keep  in  order  our  respective  followers. 
It  was  arranged  at  a  dinner.  Nothing  can  be  done 
here  without  eating.  I  would  have  produced  it  had 
it  arrived  in  time ;  they  should  all  have  drunk  out  of 
it,  and  then,  perhaps,  our  peace  would  have  stood. 
Now,  owing  to  an  ill-interpreted  letter  of  mine,  the 
agreement  is  broken,  and  the  storm  is  raging  worse 
than  ever.  It  is  the  malice  of  Satan,  who  will  not  let 
Christians  live  in  harmony.  The  matter  is  this.  I 
premise  that  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  either  Keuch- 
lin's  business,  or  Luther's  either.  I  cared  nothing 
for  Cabala  or  Talmud,  and  I  disliked  the  quarrel 
with  Ilochstrat.  Luther  is  unknown  to  me.  I  have 
glanced  at  his  books,  but  have  had  no  time  to  read 
them.  If  he  has  written  well,  it  is  no  thanks  to  me  ; 
if  ill,  I  am  not  responsible.  I  observe  only  that  the 
1  Ep.  cccclxxvii.,  abridged. 


244  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

best  men  are  those  who  are  least  offended  by  Luther. 
They  may  not  approve  entirely,  but  they  may  read 
him,  as  they  read  Cyprian  or  Jerome,  and  pardon 
much  for  the  sake  of  the  rest.  Still  I  am  sorry  that 
Luther's  books  have  been  published.  I  tried  to  pre- 
vent it,  as  I  thought  they  would  cause  disturbance. 
He  wrote  me  a  very  Christian  letter.  I  replied  by 
advising  him  to  avoid  saying  anything  seditious,  not 
to  attack  the  Pope  or  fly  in  a  passion  with  anybody, 
but  to  teach  the  Gospel  calmly  and  coolly.  I  added 
that  he  had  good  friends  at  Louvain,  hoping  that  he 
might  be  the  more  willing  to  listen  to  us.  This  has 
got  abroad,  and  has  been  taken  to  mean  that  I  have 
declared  myself  on  Luther's  side,  when  up  to  that 
time  I  was  the  only  person  who  had  given  him  any 
sound  advice  at  all.  I  am  neither  Luther's  accuser, 
nor  his  patron,  nor  his  judge ;  I  can  give  no  opinion 
about  him,  least  of  all  an  unfavourable  one. 

His  enemies  admit  that  he  is  a  person  of  good  char- 
acter. Suppose  I  defended  him  on  this  ground.  The 
laws  allow  advocates  to  criminals  on  trial.  Even  sup- 
pose I  said  that  all  this  storm  about  him  is  merely  a 
covert  attack  on  literature,  where  would  be  the  harm 
as  long  as  I  did  not  personally  adopt  his  views  ?  It 
would  be  my  duty,  as  a  Christian,  to  save  him,  if  he  is 
innocent,  from  being  crushed  by  faction,  and,  if  he 
is  mistaken,  to  recover  him  from  his  errors.  A  spirit 
which  shows  splendid  sparks  of  Christian  doctrine 
ought  not  to  be  borne  down  and  extinguished.  I 
would  correct  him  that  he  might  preach  the  better  to 
Christ's  glory.  But  certain  divines  that  I  know  will 
neither  set  him  right  nor  point  out  where  he  is  wrong. 
They  only  howl  and  raise  the  mob  upon  him.  They 
shout  out  "  heresy,  heretic,  heresiarch,  schismatic,  An- 
tichrist," and  not  a  word  besides  ;  and  their  language 
is  the  more  odious  because  most  of  them  have  never 
looked  into  his  writings.  He  has  been  condemned  on 
some  points  from  a  mere  mistake  of  his  meaning. 
For  instance,  they  make  him  say  that  it  is  unneces- 
sary for  the  penitent  to  confess  sins  which  he  does  not 


Lecture  XII  245 

himself  know  to  be  sins ;  he  need  not  confess  to  sins 
which  the  priests  are  pleased  to  call  such.  This  has 
been  interpreted  to  mean  that  no  sin  need  be  con- 
fessed which  is  not  notorious,  and  there  has  been  a 
marvellous  outcry  about  it. 

Confession  had  been  one  of  the  Church's  strongest 
and  most  envenomed  weapons ;  secrets  of  families, 
secrets  concerning  the  opinions  of  other  people  had 
been  extorted  by  it,  and  men  had  found  themselves 
accused  before  the  Inquisition  they  knew  not  why. 

Propositions  (says  Erasmus)  taken  out  of  Luther's 
writings  have  been  condemned  as  heretical  which  are 
found  in  Bernard  or  Augustine,  and  from  them  are 
received  as  orthodox  and  edifying.  I  warned  these 
Doctors  at  the  beginning  to  be  careful  what  they  were 
about.  I  advised  them  not  to  clamour  to  the  multi- 
tude, but  to  confine  themselves  to  writing  and  argu- 
ment, and  above  all  to  censure  nothing  publicly  till 
they  were  sure  that  they  had  considered  and  under- 
stood it.  I  said  it  was  indecorous  for  grave  theolo- 
gians to  storm  and  rage  at  a  person  whose  private  life 
was  admitted  to  be  innocent.  I  said  that  topics  like 
secret  confession  ought  not  to  be  declaimed  upon  be- 
fore mixed  audiences,  where  there  would  be  many 
persons  present  who  felt  so  strongly  about  it.  I  sup- 
posed I  was  speaking  sense  to  them,  but  it  only 
made  them  more  furious.  They  insisted  that  I  had 
prompted  Luther,  and  that  his  work  had  been  con- 
ceived and  brought  forth  at  Louvain.  They  stirred 
such  a  tragedy  as  I  have  never  witnessed  the  like  of. 

The  business  of  theologians  is  to  teach  the  truth. 
These  people  have  nothing  in  their  mouths  but  vio- 
lence and  punishment.  Augustine  would  not  have 
the  worst  felon  put  to  death  till  an  effort  had  been 
made  to  mend  him.  The  Louvain  theologians  may 
call  themselves  meek,  but  they  are  thirsting  for  hu- 
man blood,  and  demand  that  Luther  shall  be  arrested 
and  executed.     If  they  wish  to  deserve  to  be  called 


24C>  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

divines,  let  them  convert  Jews,  let  them  mend  the 
morals  of  Christendom,  which  are  worse  than  Turk- 
ish. How  can  it  be  right  to  drag  a  man  to  the  scaf- 
fold who  has  done  no  more  than  what  the  theological 
schools  themselves  have  always  permitted?  He  has 
proposed  certain  subjects  for  discussion.  He  is  will- 
ing to  be  convinced.  He  offers  to  submit  to  Rome 
or  to  leave  his  cause  to  be  judged  by  the  Universities. 
Is  this  a  reason  for  handing  him  over  to  the  execu- 
tioners? I  am  not  surprised  that  he  will  not  trust 
himself  to  the  judgment  of  men  who  would  rather 
find  him  guilty  than  innocent.  How  have  all  these 
disturbances  risen  ?  The  world  is  choked  with  opin- 
ions which  are  but  human  after  all,  with  institutions 
and  scholastic  dogmas,  and  the  despotism  of  the  men- 
dicant friars,  who  are  but  satellites  of  the  Holy  See, 
yet  have  become  so  numerous  and  so  powerful  as  to 
be  formidable  to  secular  princes,  and  to  the  Popes 
themselves.  As  long  as  the  Pope  says  what  they  say, 
these  friars  call  him  more  than  God.  If  he  contra- 
dicts them,  he  is  no  more  than  a  dream.  I  do  not 
accuse  them  all,  but  I  do  say  that  too  many  are  like 
this.  They  tyrannise  over  the  conscience  of  the  laity 
for  their  own  purposes.  They  brazen  their  fronts. 
They  forget  Christ,  and  preach  preposterous  doctrines 
of  their  own  invention.  They  defend  indulgences  in 
a  tone  which  plain  men  cannot  and  will  not  endure. 

Thus  it  has  been  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ  has 
faded  out ;  in  a  little  while  the  last  spark  of  Chris- 
tianity would  have  been  extinguished,  and  we  should 
have  been  enslaved  in  a  worse  than  Jewish  ceremo- 
nial. There  are  good  men  even  among  theologians 
who  see  these  things  and  deplore  them.  Nay,  there 
are  monks  who  will  admit  the  truth  in  private  conver- 
sation, and  it  was  this  I  conceive  which  moved  Luther 
at  last  to  rise  and  speak  out.  What  unworthy  motive 
could  Luther  have  had  ?  He  wants  no  promotion.  He 
wants  no  money.  I  am  not  complaining  of  the  fact 
that  the  Pope  has  censured  him.  I  do  complain  of 
the  manner  and  the  occasion  on  which  the  censure  was 


Lecture  XII  247 

issued.  He  was  imprudent  enough  to  question  the 
value  of  indulgences  in  which  others  pretended  to 
believe.  He  challenged,  perhaps  too  uncompromis- 
ingly, the  authority  of  the  Roman  Pontiff  in  the  face 
of  an  extravagant  exercise  of  it.  He  ventured  to  re- 
ject the  opinion  of  St.  Thomas,  which  the  Dominicans 
place  above  the  Gospel,  and  he  condemned  the  abuse 
of  the  confessional  by  the  monks  to  ensnare  the  con- 
sciences of  men  and  women.  Pious  souls  have  af- 
fected to  be  excruciated,  while  all  the  time  no  word  is 
heard  of  evangelical  doctrine  in  the  schools  of  theol- 
ogy.  The  sacred  writers  are  set  aside  as  antiquated. 
No  word  of  Christ  is  heard  in  the  pulpits.  The  talk 
is  all  of  the  powers  of  the  Pope  and  the  latest  devel- 
opment of  theological  dogma. 

If  Luther  has  been  intemperate,  this  is  the  expla- 
nation of  it.  The  bishops  are  called  Christ's  vicars. 
The  chief  bishop  is  the  Pope,  and  our  prayer  for  the 
Pope  should  be  that  he  seek  the  glory  of  Christ,  whose 
minister  he  professes  to  be.  But  those  are  no  friends 
to  the  Pope  who  lavish  higher  titles  on  him  than  he 
claims,  or  than  it  is  good  for  the  flock  of  Christ  that 
he  should  possess.  They  pretend  that  they  are  stand- 
ing up  in  this  stormy  way  for  the  Pope's  honour. 
They  are  alarmed  really  for  their  own  tyranny,  which 
the  Pope's  power  supports.  The  present  Pontiff  is,  I 
believe,  a  good  man,  but  in  such  a  whirl  of  confusion 
he  cannot  know  everything,  and  the  safest  advisers 
for  him  would  be  those  who  think  most  of  Christ 
and  least  of  themselves.  It  is  plain  there  are  persons 
about  him  who  exasperate  him  against  Luther,  and 
against  everyone  who  does  not  take  their  side.  I 
coidd  point  them  out,  were  not  the  truth  sometimes 
dangerous,  and  I  might  be  accused  of  slander.  I 
know  many  of  them  personally.  Others  have  shown 
what  they  are  in  their  writings.  I  wish  I  could  make 
your  Eminence  understand  them  as  well  as  I  do.  I 
feel  myself  the  more  free  to  speak  because,  as  I  said, 
I  have  no  connection  either  with  Reuchlin  or  with 
Luther.     Luther's  enemies  are  the  same  persons  who 


248  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

led  the  attack  on  literature  and  opposed  the  study  of 
the  early  Christian  writers.  They  were  wise  in  their 
generation.  They  knew  that  the  spread  of  knowledge 
would  be  fatal  to  their  dominion.  Before  Luther  had 
written  a  word  the  Dominicans  and  Carmelites  were 
busy  at  their  work.  Most  of  them  were  more  wicked 
than  ignorant,  and  when  Luther's  books  came  out  they 
used  them  as  a  handle  to  associate  me  with  him. 

Confess  they  must  that  there  is  not  an  author,  an- 
cient or  modern,  whose  writings  do  not  contain  posi- 
tions which,  if  challenged,  would  be  found  heretical. 
Why  are  they  silent  about  these  and  fly  so  furiously 
at  Luther  only?  He  has  written,  rather  imprudently 
than  irreverently,  things  which  they  do  not  like.  He 
is  disrespectful  to  St.  Thomas.  He  has  spoilt  the 
trade  in  indulgences.  He  speaks  ill  of  the  mendicant 
friars.  He  places  the  Gospel  above  scholastic  dog- 
matism, and  despises  argumentative  hair-splitting. 
Doubtless  intolerable  heresies.  Behind  the  monks  are 
crafty  influential  men  who  have  the  Pope's  ear  and 
urge  him  into  dangerous  courses. 

In  earlier  times  a  person  charged  with  heresy  was 
heard  in  his  defence  ;  he  was  acquitted  if  his  answers 
were  satisfactory ;  if  he  persisted  the  worst  which  he 
had  to  fear  was  exclusion  from  Communion.  Now 
heresy  is  the  darkest  of  crimes,  and  the  cry  is  raised 
on  the  least  occasion.  Nothing  then  was  heresy,  ex- 
cept to  deny  the  truth  of  the  Gospel,  or  the  Articles 
of  the  Creed,  or  positive  decrees  of  Councils.  Now  to 
dissent  from  St.  Thomas  is  heresy.  To  reject  any 
inference  which  a  sophister  of  yesterday  pretends  to 
have  drawn  out  of  St.  Thomas  is  heresy.  Whatever 
the  monks  do  not  like  is  heresy.  To  know  Greek  is 
heresy.  To  speak  grammatically  is  heresy.  To  dis- 
sent from  them  in  the  least  degree  in  word  or  act  is 
heresy. 

Of  course  it  is  an  offence  to  corrupt  the  truth,  but 
everything  need  not  be  made  an  article  of  faith.  The 
champions  of  orthodoxy  should  have  no  taint  on  them 
of  ambition,  or  malice,  or  revenge.     The  world  knows 


Lecture  XII  249 

these  friars.  When  their  passions  are  up  the  best  of 
men  are  not  safe  from  them.  They  threaten  the 
bishops.  They  threaten  the  Pope  himself.  Savona- 
rola's fate  can  tell  what  the  Dominicans  are,  or  this 
late  wickedness  at  Berne.1  I  do  not  wish  to  revive 
old  stories,  but  I  must  and  will  point  out  what  will 
happen  if  these  people  are  allowed  their  way.  It  has 
nothing  to  do  with  Luther.  The  danger  is  real  and 
must  be  exposed. 

As  to  Luther  himself,  his  writings  are  before  the 
Universities.  The  decision,  be  it  what  it  may,  can- 
not affect  me.  I  have  always  been  cautious.  I  have 
written  nothing  which  can  be  laid  hold  of  against 
established  order.  I  have  started  no  false  opinions. 
I  have  formed  no  party.  I  would  rather  die  than 
cause  a  disturbance  in  the  State.  But  the  less  your 
Eminence  listens  to  such  advisers  as  the  monks,  the 
better  it  will  be  for  your  peace. 

Cardinal  Albert  was  the  most  powerful  churchman 
in  Germany.  He  was  a  personal  friend  of  Leo  X., 
and  resembled  him  in  his  splendid  tastes  and  general 
liberalism.  Neither  he  nor  the  Pope  had  any  objec- 
tion to  satires  on  the  monks,  and  the  sarcasms  of 
Erasmus  they  had  found  amusing  and  had  probably 
thought  useful.  For  himself,  Erasmus  had  nothing 
to  fear  in  such  high  quarters  as  long  as  he  dissociated 
himself  from  Luther.  But  Luther  had  struck  at  the 
Pope  himself ;  Cardinal  Albert  was  personally  inter- 
ested in  the  indulgences ;  and  that  Erasmus  should 
have  come  forward  at  such  a  moment  with  a  manly 
protest  against  injustice  to  Luther  is  specially  credita- 
ble to  the  little  man.  To  have  addressed  so  great  a 
prelate  at  all  in  such  a  tone  was  to  risk  the  loss  of  the 

1  Bernense  facinus,  occasioned  by  a  dispute  on  the  Immaculate 
Conception.  The  Franciscans  asserted  that  Our  Lady  was  born  with- 
out original  sin ;  the  Dominicans  denied  it  and  invented  a  monstrous 
apparition  to  decide  the  question.  The  fraud  was  discovered  and  five 
of  them  were  hanged. 


250  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

high  protection  which  alone  so  far  had  enabled  him  to 
hold  his  ground,  and  to  risk  it  in  a  cause  with  which 
he  had  imperfect  sympathy,  and  for  a  man  whom  he 
thought  headstrong-  and  unwise. 

Popular  opinion  in  Germany  had  at  first  been  all 
on  Luther's  side.  As  the  plot  thickened,  and  as  the 
Pope's  action  had  widened  the  quarrel,  many  became 
alarmed  at  the  magnitude  of  the  issues  which  were 
opening,  and  right-minded  people  were  doubtful  how 
to  act. 

Erasmus's  influence  on  the  educated  classes  was 
enormous ;  his  letters  show  how  many  of  them  wrote 
to  him  for  guidance,  and  those  letters  were  thought  of 
such  high  importance  that  they  were  collected  and 
printed,  with  or  without  his  consent.  They  furnished 
the  best  evidence  of  his  general  consistency  and  up- 
rightness. One  advantage  he  and  Luther  both  had. 
Printed  books  were  scarce,  and  printing  was  costly. 
Publishers  and  compositors  were  all  on  the  side  of  the 
Reformers.  Anything  of  Luther's,  anything  of  Eras- 
mus's was  multiplied  into*thousands  of  copies,  spread 
everywhere,  and  read  by  everyone,  while  the  orthodox 
could  scarcely  get  their  works  into  type. 

Until  it  had  been  seen  what  part  the  young  Em- 
peror would  take,  and  what  part  the  German  Diet 
would  take,  Erasmus  uniformly  protested  against  the 
violence  of  the  Church  party,  and  against  the  violence 
equally  of  Luther's  passionate  supporters.  Philip 
Melanchthon,  in  the  ardency  of  hero-worship  and  en- 
thusiasm for  the  new  light  which  had  risen,  was 
among  those  who  went  to  Erasmus  for  advice.  Eras- 
mus warns  him  against  rushing  unnecessarily  into  a 
fray  which  promised  to  be  desperate. 

If  you  will  take  my  counsel  (he  wrote,  April  22, 
1519)  you  will   leave   the   enemy  alone.     They  are 


Lecture  XII.  251 

wretches  and  deserve  to  be  torn  in  pieces;  but  we 
shall  play  into  their  hands  by  striking*  back  at  them. 
We  should  show  ourselves  their  superiors  in  modera- 
tion as  well  as  in  argument.  Everyone  here  at  Lou- 
vain  speaks  well  of  Luther  personally.  There  are 
differences  about  his  doctrines.  I  can  give  no  opinion, 
for  I  have  not  yet  read  his  books.  He  seems  to  have 
said  some  things  well.  I  wish  his  manner  had  been 
as  happy  as  his  matter.  I  have  written  about  him  to 
the  Elector  of  Saxony. 

The  leader  of  the  intellect  of  Germany  might  have 
been  expected  to  have  marked  closely  the  appearance 
of  a  new  star  which  was  drawing  all  men's  eyes  to  it, 
and  to  have  noted  every  word  which  Luther  uttered. 
Yet  Erasmus  purposely  abstained  from  reading  Lu- 
ther's writings.  He  knew  that  he  would  be  pressed 
on  both  sides  for  his  opinion,  and  it  was  obviously 
convenient  to  him  to  say  that  he  had  done  no  more 
than  glance  at  them.  But  there  was  more  than  this. 
Doubtless  he  wrote  as  he  had  spoken  to  the  Elector, 
advising  him  not  to  surrender  Luther ;  but  he  was 
himself  further  from  sharing  Luther's  opinions  than 
he  cared  to  explain.  High-minded  and  gifted  men 
naturally  find  the  same  enemies  in  fools  and  rogues. 
But  they  fall  themselves  under  two  types,  the  believ- 
ing and  enthusiastic,  the  sceptical  and  moderate. 
They  need  not  oppose  each  other.  They  may  be 
made  of  the  same  celestial  material ;  but  one  blazes 
like  a  comet,  perplexing  nations  with  the  fear  or 
reality  of  change ;  the  other  light  is  fixed  and  steady, 
if  less  immediately  dazzling,  and  may  shine  on  when 
the  comet  has  burnt  out. 

Erasmus  could  not  attach  himself  to  Luther,  yet  he 
was  uncertain  of  the  part  which  he  ought  to  take,  and 
the  violence  of  the  orthodox  was  increasingly  intoler- 
able to  him.     The  year  1519  was  waning  out.     The 


252  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Diet  which  was  to  decide  Luther's  fate  was  still  de- 
layed by  the  Emperor's  absence  in  Spain.  In  No- 
vember Erasmus  writes  to  a  friend :  — 

I  thought  I  knew  something  of  mankind,  having 
had  so  much  experience  of  them ;  but  I  have  discov- 
ered such  brutes  (belluas)  among  Christians  as  I 
could  not  have  believed  to  exist.  Your  account  of 
the  disorder  in  Germany  is  most  vivid.  It  is  due 
partly  to  the  natural  fierceness  of  the  race,  partly  to 
the  division  into  so  many  separate  States,  and  partly 
to  the  tendency  of  the  people  to  serve  as  mercenaries. 
As  to  the  quarrels  of  religion,  the  misfortune  would 
be  less  if  those  who  object  to  the  existing  order  of 
things  were  in  agreement.  But  we  are  all  at  issue 
one  with  another.  Strange  as  it  may  seem,  there  are 
even  men  among  us  who  think,  like  Epicurus,  that  the 
soul  dies  with  the  body.  Mankind  are  great  fools, 
and  will  believe  anything. 


LECTURE  XIII. 

Among  the  higher  clergy  there  were  many  who  had 
welcomed  and  encouraged  the  revival  of  learning,  but 
were  perplexed  and  alarmed  — alarmed  partly  for  them- 
selves —  at  the  storm  which  had  since  broken  out. 
They  were  the  more  anxious  that  Erasmus  should  not 
commit  himself.  The  publication  of  Erasmus's  letters, 
many  of  them  so  bitter  against  the  monks  and  the 
scholastics,  had  added  to  their  fears,  and  one  of  these 
moderate  persons,  Louis  Marlianus,  a  bishop,1  had 
written  to  him  in  distress. 

Erasmus  answers  at  length,  and  you  can  trace  how 
his  mind  was  working :  — 

March  25,  1520. 

You  caution  me  against  entangling  myself  with 
Luther.  I  have  taken  your  advice,  and  have  done  my 
utmost  to  keep  things  quiet.  Luther's  party  have  urged 
me  to  join  him,  and  Luther's  enemies  have  done  their 
best  to  drive  me  to  it  by  their  furious  attacks  on  me  in 
their  sermons.  Neither  have  succeeded.  Christ  I 
know:  Luther  I  know  not.  The  Roman  Church  I 
know,  and  death  will  not  part  me  from  it  till  the 
Church  departs  from  Christ.  I  abhor  sedition. 
Would  that  Luther  and  the  Germans  abhorred  it 
equally.  It  is  strange  to  see  how  the  two  factions  goad 
each  other  on,  as  if  they  were  in  collusion.  Luther  has 
hurt  himself  more  than  he  has  hurt  his  opponents  by 
his  last  effusions,  while  the  attacks  on  him  are  so  ab- 
surd that  many  think  the  Pope  wrong  in  spite  of  them- 
selves.   I  approve  of  those  who  stand  by  the  Pope,  but 

1  Bishop  of  Tuy,  in  Gallicia.     Ep.  cli.,  abridged. 


254  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

I  could  wish  them  to  be  wiser  then  they  are.  They 
would  devour  Luther  off  hand.  They  may  eat  him 
boiled  or  roast  for  all  that  I  care,  but  they  mistake  in 
linking  him  and  me  together,  and  they  can  finish  him 
more  easily  without  me  than  with  me.  I  am  surprised 
at  Aleander ;  we  were  once  friends.  He  was  in- 
structed to  conciliate,  when  he  was  sent  over,  the  Pope 
wishing  not  to  push  matters  to  extremity.  He  would 
have  done  better  to  act  with  me.  He  would  have 
found  me  with  him,  and  not  against  him,  on  the  Pope's 
prerogative. 

They  pretend  that  Luther  has  borrowed  from  me. 
No  lie  can  be  more  impudent.  He  may  have  borrowed 
from  me  as  heretics  borrow  from  Evangelists  and  Apos- 
tles, but  not  a  syllable  else.  I  beseech  you,  protect  me 
from  such  calumnies.  Let  my  letters  be  examined.  I 
may  have  written  unguardedly,  but  that  is  all.  In- 
quire  into  my  conversation.  You  will  find  that  I  have 
said  nothing  except  that  Luther  ought  "to  be  answered 
and  not  crushed. 

Even  now  I  would  prefer  that  things  should  be 
quietly  considered  and  not  embittered  by  platform  rail- 
ing. I  would  have  the  Church  purified  of  evil,  lest 
the  good  in  it  suffer  by  connection  with  what  is  inde- 
fensible ;  but  in  avoiding  the  Scylla  of  Luther  I  would 
have  us  also  avoid  Charybdis.  If  this  be  sin,  then  I 
own  my  guilt.  I  have  sought  to  save  the  dignity  of  the 
Roman  Pontiff,  the  honour  of  Catholic  theology,  and 
the  welfare  of  Christendom.  I  have  not  defended 
Luther  even  in  jest.  In  common  with  all  reasonable 
men  I  have  blamed  the  noisy  bellowing  of  persons 
whom  I  will  not  name,  whose  real  object  is  to  prevent 
the  spread  of  knowledge  and  to  recover  their  own  in- 
fluence. Their  numbers  are  not  great,  but  their  power 
is  enormous.  But  be  assured  of  this,  if  any  move- 
ment is  in  progress  injurious  to  the  Christian  religion, 
or  dangerous  to  the  public  peace  or  to  the  supremacy  of 
the  Holy  See,  it  does  not  proceed  from  Erasmus.  Time 
will  show  it.  I  have  not  deviated  in  what  I  have 
written  one  hair's  breadth  from  the  Church's  teach- 


Lecture  XIII.  255 

ing.  We  must  bear  almost  anything  rather  than  throw 
the  world  into  confusion.  There  are  seasons  when  we 
must  even  conceal  the  truth.  The  actual  facts  of  things 
are  not  to  be  blurted  out  at  all  times  and  places,  and 
in  all  companies.  But  every  wise  man  knows  that  doc- 
trines and  usages  have  been  introduced  into  the  Church 
which  have  no  real  sanction,  partly  by  custom,  partly 
through  obsequious  canonists,  partly  by  scholastic 
definitions,  partly  by  the  tricks  and  arts  of  secular 
sovereigns.  Such  excrescences  must  be  removed, 
though  the  medicine  must  be  administered  cautiously, 
lest  it  make  the  disorder  worse  and  the  patient  die. 
Plato  says  that  men  in  general  cannot  appreciate  rea- 
soning, and  may  be  deceived  for  their  good.  I  know 
not  whether  this  be  right  or  wrong.  For  myself  I 
prefer  to  be  silent  and  introduce  no  novelties  into  reli- 
gion. Many  great  persons  have  entreated  me  to  support 
Luther.  I  have  answered  always  that  I  will  support 
him  when  he  is  on  the  Catholic  side.  They  have  asked 
me  to  draw  up  a  formula  of  faith.  I  reply  that  I  know 
of  none  save  the  creed  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  I 
advise  everyone  who  consults  me  to  submit  to  the  Pope. 
I  was  the  first  to  oppose  the  publication  of  Luther's 
books.  I  recommended  Luther  himself  to  publish 
nothing  revolutionary.  I  feared  always  that  revolu- 
tion would  be  the  end,  and  I  would  have  done  more 
had  I  not  been  afraid  that  I  might  he  found  fighting 
against  the  Spirit  of  God. 

I  caution  everyone  against  reading  libellous  or 
anonymous  books,  books  meant  only  to  irritate ;  but 
I  can  advise  only.  I  cannot  compel.  The  world  is 
full  of  poetasters  and  orators,  and  printing-presses  are 
at  work  everywhere.  I  cannot  stop  them,  and  their 
extravagances  ought  not  to  be  charged  to  me.  I  do 
not  mean  Ulrich  von  Hutten  in  particular,  though  I 
am  sorry  for  him  too,  that  with  such  a  genius  he 
makes  no  better  use  of  his  gifts.  He  is  himself  his 
worst  enemy. 

This  letter  is  entirely  honest.  It  shows  you  pre- 
cisely how  Erasmus  was  placed,  how  he  thought,  and 


256  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

how  he  acted.  I  presume  you  know  generally  what 
was  going  on  ;  but  I  must  say  a  few  words  to  keep  the 
position  plain  before  you. 

The  world  was  changing,  and  the  Church  party 
would  not  understand  it.  In  the  first  great  fight  be- 
tween the  clergy  and  the  laity,  in  the  twelfth  century, 
the  clergy  had  won.  They  asserted,  and  they  made 
the  world  believe  them,  that  they  were  a  supernatural 
order  trusted  with  the  keys  of  heaven  and  hell.  The 
future  fate  of  every  soul  depended  on  their  absolution. 
They  only  could  bind  and  loose.  They  only  could 
bring:  down  Christ  from  heaven  into  the  sacrament. 
They  were  a  peculiar  priesthood,  amenable  to  no  laws 
but  their  own,  while  the  laity  were  amenable  to  theirs, 
and  as  long  as  this  belief  subsisted  they  were  shielded 
by  an  enchanted  atmosphere.  By  them  kings  reigned ; 
all  power  was  derived  from  God,  and  they  were  God's 
earthly  representatives,  and  in  the  confidence  of  this 
assumed  authority  they  had  raised  a  superstructure 
of  intolerable  and  irresponsible  tyranny.  They  were 
men,  and  they  might  commit  crimes,  but  they  could 
not  be  punished  by  any  secular  law.  They  were 
tempted  like  others  to  vicious  pleasures,  but  vice  did 
not  impair  either  their  rights  or  their  powers.  Im- 
punity had  produced  its  natural  effect,  and  in  the 
centuries  succeeding  they  had  fallen  into  the  condition 
which  the  letters  of  Erasmus  describe. 

The  patience  of  the  world  was  worn  out.  Luther's 
first  blow  was  at  indulgences.  He  followed  it  after- 
wards by  striking  at  the  heart  of  the  imposition  in 
treating  the  priesthood  merely  as  a  point  of  order  in 
the  Church,  the  supernatural  power  a  dream  and  an 
illusion,  and  the  Papacy  an  anti-Christian  usurpation. 
Luther's  words  expressed  the  secret  convictions  of  the 
laity  of    Northern  Europe.     Pardons,  excommunica- 


Lecture  XIII.  257 

tions,  dispensations,  absolutions,  the  hated  confessional, 
the  worse  hated  ecclesiastical  courts,  the  entire  system 
of  spiritual  domination  rocked  under  the  blow.  From 
Norway  to  the  Rhine,  from  Vienna  to  the  Irish  Chan- 
nel, GerAan,  Frank,  Scandinavian,  Anglo-Saxon,  the 
vigorous  and  manly  part  of  them  cried  with  a  common 
voice,  "  The  clergy  are  but  as  other  men.  It  is  an  im- 
posture, we  will  bear  it  no  longer."  No  wonder  the 
monks  raged.  It  was  no  time  for  Erasmus  and  his 
arguments.  The  fire  must  be  put  out,  or  they  were 
gone.  They  were  still,  as  Erasmus  said,  terribly  pow- 
erful. They  had  on  their  side  the  reverence  for 
things  long  established,  the  dread  of  touching  the 
Sacred  Ark,  the  consciences  of  the  timid,  and  the  pas- 
sions of  the  fanatical,  the  alarm  of  princes  and  politi- 
cians at  the  shaking  of  beliefs  which  had  been  the 
cement  of  human  society.  To  all  this  they  were  pre- 
pared to  appeal  to  crush  out  the  flame  at  its  rising,  to 
fio'ht  with  it  for  life  or  death  —  for  life  or  death  it 
was  to  them  ;  to  burn,  to  kill,  to  set  nation  against 
nation,  family  against  family,  brother  against  brother, 
subjects  against  sovereigns,  and  sovereigns  against  Sub- 
jects, anything  to  keep  inviolate  the  ark  of  their  own 
supremacy.  With  what  fatal  success  a  century  of 
bloodshed  was  to  tell. 

They  were  not  fighting,  however,  against  an  imagi- 
nary danger.  Two  years  had  not  gone  since  Luther 
set  up  his  theses,  and  half  Germany  was  already  at 
his  side.  Indulgences  were  no  longer  the  only  ques- 
tion. Every  long-endured  grievance  of  injured  lay- 
men against  the  ecclesiastical  despotism  sprang  into 
light.  Luther's  cause  was  theirs.  In  defending  Lu- 
ther they  were  defending  their  own  purses  against 
priestly  extortion.  Erasmus  saw  deeper  than  most 
whither  the  movement  was  leading.     He  understood 


258  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

how  deep,  notwithstanding,  the  roots  lay  of  the  old 
thing,  and  what  a  straggle  was  impending.  He  hated 
war,  civil  war  worst  of  all,  and  to  civil  war  it  might 
be  coming.  He  could  not  join  Luther.  He  dared 
not  oppose  him,  lest  haply,  as  he  confessed,  "  he  might 
be  found  fighting  against  the  Spirit  of  God." 

Blacker  and  blacker  the  sky  grew.  Leo  had  first 
ridiculed  Luther,  then  grew  frightened,  wrote  to  the 
Elector  of  Saxony  to  silence  him,  seize  him,  send  him 
prisoner  to  Rome.  He  had  sent  cardinal  legates  to 
threaten,  to  persuade,  to  bribe ;  but  all  ineffectually. 
In  weak  haste  he  issued  the  Bull  defending  the  indul- 
gences, condemning  Luther's  writings,  and  ordering 
every  priest  in  Germany  to  preach  against  them. 
The  monks'  tongues  were  set  wagging.  Erasmus 
had  been  deafened  with  their  clamours,  but  still  to  no 
purpose.  The  young  Emperor  was  detained  in  Spain. 
The  Elector  of  Saxony  refused  to  surrender  his  sub- 
ject till  he  had  been  legally  condemned.  Luther  had 
been  first  humble,  had  asked  only  that  the  indulgences 
should  be  suspended,  and  had  promised  to  submit  if 
they  were  found  to  be  legal.  Finding  that  the  point 
was  not  to  be  argued,  and  that  for  him  there  was  to 
be  no  answer  to  his  theses  but  stake  or  scaffold,  he 
went  on  with  impetuous  young  Germany  behind  him  to 
pour  out  tract  after  tract,  exposing  the  papal  encroach- 
ments. Leo,  driven  forward,  as  Erasmus  said,  by 
headstrong  advisers,  put  out  his  spiritual  censures, 
with  a  formal  requisition  to  the  secular  powers  to  see 
them  executed.  The  issue  of  a  Bull  would  force  on  a 
crisis.  The  Diet  was  summoned  to  meet  at  Worms 
in  the  following  January.  Erasmus  sate  at  Louvain 
observing  the  gathering  of  the  storm.  His  chief  hope 
was  in  the  Elector  of  Saxony,  who  had  sent  him  a 
gold  medal  in  acknowledgment  of  his  services. 


Lecture  XIII.  259 

"Writing  his  thanks  to  George  Spalatin,  July  6, 
1520,  he  says :  — 

May  Christ  direct  Luther's  actions  to  God's  glory, 
and  confound  those  who  are  seeking  their  own  inter- 
ests. In  Luther's  enemies  I  perceive  more  of  the 
spirit  of  this  world  than  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  I  wish 
Luther  himself  would  be  quiet  for  a  while.  He  in- 
jures learning,  and  does  himself  no  good,  while  morals 
and  manners  grow  worse  and  worse.  What  he  says 
may  be  true,  but  there  are  times  and  seasons.  Truth 
need  not  always  be  proclaimed  on  the  house-top. 

Erasmus,  like  all  men  of  real  genius,  had  a  light 
elastic  nature.  He  knew  very  well  that  to  lose  heart 
was  the  worst  of  losses,  and  a  small  thing  made  his 
spirits  rebound.  He  had  been  ill  again,  and  in  the 
midst  of  it  had  been  obliged  to  go  to  Bruges,  where 
good  news  reached  him  from  England. 

I  was  nearly  dead  (he  writes  to  Conrad  Goclenius,1 
August  12,  1520).  I  could  eat  nothing.  I  tried  doc- 
tor after  doctor.  Potions,  draughts,  clysters,  powders, 
ointments,  baths,  plaisters,  and  what  not.  I  had  no 
leisure  to  be  sick.  Business  called  me  to  Bruges.  I 
pack  my  bag,  mount  my  horse.  Servant  asks  me 
where  I  am  going.  "  Going,"  said  I,  "  going  where 
there  is  better  air  than  at  Louvain."  Scarcely  had  I 
been  here  for  two  days  when  my  stomach  does  its  duty 
again.  Fever  gone  to  the  devil,  and  I  young  again, 
and  able  to  digest  anything.  The  world  mends  too. 
Lucky  you,  young  man,  to  have  been  born  in  such  an 
age  as  this.  The  louder  the  frogs  croak  the  more  the 
youths  of  Germany  attach  themselves  to  me.  Good 
news  from  England  too.  More  is  made  a  knight  and 
raised  to  office  by  the  king. 

His  enemy,  Edward  Lee,  is  at  work  once  more  on 

his    New  Testament,  and  Pirkheimer  has  written  to 

him  about  it. 

l  Ep.  dxx. 


260  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

You  think  (lie  answers,1  September  5,  from  Bruges) 
that  Lee  has  been  bribed  to  do  this  dirty  work  by  the 
monks  and  divines.  Doubtless  those  birds  of  darkness 
are  rejoicing  ;  but  Lee  is  only  like  himself.  As  a  boy 
he  was  always  the  same,  a  cross,  envious,  malignant 
creature.  Lee  must  always  be  first,  craving  for  ad- 
miration, and  obstinate  in  his  own  opinion.  Such  as 
he  was  he  is  now,  only  that  his  vices  grow  with  his  age. 
God  mend  him.  As  to  me,  all  I  have  sought  has  been 
to  open  my  contemporaries'  eyes  and  bring  them  back 
from  ritual  to  true  Christianity.  But  I  fear  it  will  go 
the  other  way,  and  the  enemy  are  like  to  get  the  better 
of  us.  Men,  thought  to  be  lights  and  the  salt  of  the 
earth,  hold  it  right  to  lie  away  their  neighbours'  char- 
acters from  their  pulpits.  They  don't  believe  what 
they  are  saying.  They  only  want  to  gain  great 
people's  favour.  They  hate  knowledge  as  they  hate  a 
dog  or  a  snake.  Of  Luther  I  say  only  what  I  would 
say  to  himself.  I  regret  that  a  man  who  promised  to 
be  a  splendid  instrument  in  the  hands  of  God  should 
be  so  exasperated  by  the  howls  at  him. 

A  few  days  later  Erasmus  is  back  at  Louvain,  and 
writes  to  Gerard  of  Nimegen :  2  — 

I  fear  what  may  happen  to  that  wretched  Luther. 
He  has  displeased  the  princes  and  has  infuriated  the 
Pope.  Why  could  he  not  be  advised  by  me  and  keep 
that  tongue  of  his  quiet  a  little  ?  There  would  have 
been  less  passion,  and  he  would  have  done  far  more 
good.  His  destruction  would  not  in  itself  be  of  much 
moment,  but  if  his  enemies  succeed  in  crushing  him 
there  will  be  no  bearing  them.  They  will  never  rest 
till  they  have  made  an  end  of  learning.  Hochstrat 
and  Eck  [a  Dominican  enemy  of  Luther]  were  to 
have  finished  him.  The  University  of  Paris  was  to 
have  pronounced  judgment.  A  furious  Bull  has  been 
prepared  at  Rome,  but  I  am  afraid  there  will  be  only 
more  confusion.     The  Pope's  Council  are  leading  their 

1  Ep.  flxxvii.,  abridged. 

2  Ep.  dcxxviii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XIII.  261 

master  along  a  road  which  they  may  call  the  road  of 
piety,  but  is  assuredly  a  dangerous  one.  A  dirty 
fountain  boiled  over!  That  at  first  was  all.  The 
idiot  monks  were  frightened  at  the  spread  of  know- 
ledge. They  want  to  reign  without  rivals  in  their  own 
darkness.  I  might  have  had  a  bishopric  if  I  would 
have  written  against  Luther.  I  refused,  and  stood 
neutral.  But  the  end  I  fear  will  be  that  evangelical 
truth  will  be  overthrown.  We  are  to  be  driven,  not 
taught,  or  taught  doctrines  alike  against  Scripture  and 
against  reason. 

Evidently  Erasmus  thought  that  Luther's  end  was 
now  close,  and  that  his  best  hope  was  to  save  himself 
and  his  work  from  the  general  wreck.  Again,  a  day 
or  two  after,  he  writes  to  a  friend  at  Rome : l  — 

No  one  has  been  more  distressed  at  this  Luther  busi- 
ness than  I  have  been.  Would  that  I  could  have 
stopped  it  at  the  outset.  Would  that  now  I  could 
bring  about  a  composition.  But  it  has  been  ill  man- 
aged from  the  first.  It  rose  from  the  avarice  of  a 
party  of  monks,  and  has  grown  step  by  step  to  the 
present  fury.  The  Pope's  dignity  must  of  course  be 
supported,  but  I  wish  he  knew  how  that  dignity  suffers 
from  officious  fools  who  imagine  they  are  defending 
him.  Their  stupid  screams  have  more  recommended 
Luther  to  the  multitude  than  any  other  thing.  I  told 
them  they  must  answer  him,  and  no  one  has  done  it. 
There  have  been  a  few  replies,  but  too  mild  to  satisfy 
his  accusers,  who  have  only  been  more  furious. 

Some  of  them  hate  me  worse  than  they  hate  him, 
because  I  have  tried  to  bring  them  back  to  primitive 
Christianity.  The  Pope's  Bull  requires  all  preachers 
to  denounce  Luther.  Many  of  them  said  more  against 
me  than  against  him.  One  doctor  thundered  at  me  in 
Antwerp.  A  suffragan  of  the  Bishop  of  Tournay  at 
Bruges,  with  a  pair  of  eyes  bleared  with  the  wine  he 
had  been  drinking,  stormed  for  a  whole  hour  at  both 
of  us,  producing  nothing  which  we  had  written,  but 
1  Francis  Chisiyat,  Sept.  13.     Eji.  clxxx.,  abridged. 


*2&2  Life  ami  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

calling-  us  beasts,  blockheads,  asses,  geese,  and  such 
like.  In  a  second  sermon  he  charged  me  with  flat 
heresy.  A  magistrate  present  bade  him  point  out  the 
heretical  passages.  The  scoundrel  dared  to  answer 
that  he  had  not  read  my  books.  He  had  tried  the 
Paraphrases,  but  found  the  Latin  too  much  for  him. 
Luther's  revilers  are  of  the  same  sort.  They  call 
themselves  champions  of  the  Holy  See.  If  the  Pope 
could  hear  them  he  would  shut  their  mouths  in  dis- 
gust. Oh,  that  I  could  have  spoken  to  the  Pope 
about  it !  I  could  have  shown  him  a  better  course  for 
himself  and  the  world  than  that  which  he  has  chosen. 
Curses  and  threats  may  beat  the  fire  down  for  the 
moment,  but  it  will  burst  out  worse  than  ever.  The 
Bull  has  lost  Luther  no  friends,  and  gained  none  for 
the  Pope.  It  makes  men  more  cautious,  but  Luther's 
party  grows  stronger  daily.  Have  no  fear  for  me.  I 
am  no  leader  of  a  revolution.  I  have  had  applications 
enough,  more  than  you  would  believe,  and  if  I  had 
listened  things  would  not  be  where  they  are.  But  far 
from  me  is  any  such  action.  I  have  preached  peace 
all  my  life,  and  shall  not  change  my  ways  at  the  end 
of  it. 

I  am  now  bringing  out  St.  Augustine's  works,  cor- 
rected and  annotated.  This  done,  I  shall  make  it 
known  somehow  that  I  disapprove  of  rebellion.  The 
Holy  See  needs  no  support  from  such  a  worm  as  I  am, 
but  I  shall  declare  that  I  mean  to  stand  by  it. 

Erasmus  imagined  that  if  he  had  been  consulted  he 
could  have  guided  matters  more  wisely.  If  he  was  to 
guide  the  world,  the  world  must  have  been  willing  to 
follow  him,  and  men  in  the  fury  of  religious  passion 
will  never  follow  Laodiceans  like  Erasmus.  The 
worse  for  them,  perhaps  ;  but  such  is  the  nature  of 
things.  Leo  X.  was  his  best  hope.  He  respected  the 
Pope  and  liked  him.  The  Pope  had  more  than  once 
stood  his  friend  in  difficulties.  He  could  not  volun- 
teer to  advise,  but  he  could  explain  his  own  feelings, 


Lecture  XIII.  263 

and  clear  himself  of  responsibility  for  Luther's  defi- 
ant attitude. 

TO   LEO   X.1 

Louvain,  September  19, 1520. 
I  trust  your  Holiness  will  not  listen  to  the  calum- 
nies against  me  and  Reuchlin.  We  are  charged  with 
being  in  confederacy  with  Luther.  I  have  always 
protested  against  this.  Neither  of  us  has  anything  to 
do  with  Luther.  I  do  not  know  him.  I  have  not 
read  his  writings  ;  I  have  barely  glanced  at  a  few 
pages.  I  gather  from  what  I  have  seen  that  Luther 
rejects  the  modern  hairsplitting  and  superfluous  sub- 
tleties in  the  explanation  of  Scripture  and  inclines  to 
the  mysticism  of  the  early  Fathers.  I  supported  him 
so  far  as  I  thought  him  right,  but  I  was  the  first  to 
scent  clanger.  I  warned  Froben,  the  printer,  against 
publishing  his  works.  I  wrote  to  Luther's  friends.  I 
bade  them  caution  Luther  himself  against  disturbing 
the  peace  of  the  Church.  I  did  tell  him  in  a  letter, 
which  your  Holiness  has  seen,  that  he  had  friends  in 
Louvain,  but  that  he  must  moderate  his  style  if  he 
wished  to  keep  them.  I  thought  the  knowledge  might 
have  a  useful  influence  on  hini.  This  was  two  years 
ago,  before  the  quarrel  was  so  much  embittered.  But 
if  anyone  can  prove  that  even  in  table-talk  I  have  de- 
fended his  opinions,  then  let  me,  if  men  so  please,  be 
called  a  Lutheran.  I  have  not  written  against  him  as 
I  have  been  asked  to  do,  first,  because  to  reply  to  him 
I  must  first  have  studied  what  he  has  said  attentively, 
and  for  this  I  have  no  leisure  ;  and  next,  because 
it  would  be  a  work  beyond  my  powers  or  knowledge 
—  the  Universities  had  taken  up  the  subject,  and 
it  was  not  for  me  to  anticipate  their  verdict ;  and 
thirdly,  I  confess,  because  I  hesitated  to  attack  an 
eminent  man  when  I  had  not  been  ordered  to  inter- 
fere. I  trust,  therefore,  that  I  may  rely  on  your 
Holiness's  protection.  I  dare  not  oppose  even  my 
own  Diocesan :  I  am  not  so  mad  as  to  fly  in  the  face 
1  Ep.  dxiix.,  abridged. 


2G4  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

of  the  Vicar  of  Christ.  I  did  not  defend  Luther 
when  I  might  have  lawfully  done  so.  When  I  said 
I  disapproved  of  the  character  of  the  attacks  on  him 
I  was  thinking  less  of  the  man  himself  than  of  the 
ovei'bearing  attitude  of  the  theologians.  Their  as- 
saults on  him  were  carried  on  with  malicious  acerbity 
and  dangerous  appeals  to  popular  passion,  and  the 
effect  was  only  to  give  importance  to  his  writings  and 
provoke  the  world  to  read  them.  If  they  had  first 
answered  and  confuted  him  they  might  then  have 
burnt  his  books,  and  himself  too  if  he  had  deserved  it. 
But  the  minds  of  a  free,  generous  nation  cannot  be 
driven.  It  would  have  been  better  for  the  theologians 
themselves  if  they  had  taken  my  advice  and  attended 
to  it. 

The  letter  ended  with  a  hope  that  Erasmus  might 
be  able  to  go  to  Rome  in  the  winter  and  see  the  Pope 
himself.  But  the  stream  was  running  too  hot.  The 
Diet  was  coming  on.  The  Church  party  were  deter- 
mined that  Luther  should  appear  before  it  with  the 
papal  sentence  already  passed  upon  him.  His  books 
were  publicly  burnt.  He  himself  was  condemned, 
and  the  secular  power  was  formally  called  in  to  sup- 
port the  Pope's  authority.  By  law  and  custom  the 
secular  princes  were  bound  to  execute  a  Pope's  decree 
against  a  pronounced  heretic.  An  imperial  safe-con- 
duct had  not  saved  John  Huss  or  Jerome  of  Prague, 
and  to  stand  by  a  rebellious  monk  was  a  novelty 
before  which  the  boldest  of  them  might  hesitate. 
Luther  himself  did  not  expect  that  the  laity  would 
save  him.  He  fully  expected  to  be  sacrificed,  count- 
ing that  in  his  death  he  would  bring  a  step  nearer  the 
time  of  Germany's  deliverance.  He  had  made  up  his 
mind  to  the  worst,  and  he  determined  while  he  was 
still  free  to  strike  one  more  blow,  which  all  the  world 
should  hear  of.     The  Vatican  officials  had  burnt  his 


Lecture  XIII.  265 

own  books :  lie  himself  replied  with  burning  the 
Pope's  Bull,  with  a  copy  of  the  Papal  Decretals,  and 
so  defied  Leo  to  do  his  worst. 

So  matters  stood  in  the  autumn  of  1520.  The 
young  Emperor  returned  from  Spain.  The  Diet  was 
to  meet  at  Worms  in  January,  and  Erasmus  re- 
mained motionless  at  Louvain.  The  Pope,  it  seems, 
had  not  encouraged  his  wish  to  go  to  Rome.  The 
Louvain  divines  were  triumphing  in  their  anticipated 
victory.  They  were  confident  in  the  Emperor.  They 
were  confident  in  the  result  of  the  Diet.  Their 
enemies  would  now  be  delivered  into  their  hand, 
Erasmus  and  his  Greek  as  well  as  Luther  and  his 
theses.  They  were  impatient  to  distinguish  them- 
selves by  a  stroke  of  their  own  before  the  Diet  began, 
and  involve  Erasmus  in  Luther's  fall. 

Erasmus  tells  the  story  in  an  appeal  to  the  Modera- 
tor of  the  University  of  Louvain. 

TO   GODSCHALK.1 

October  18,  1520. 

Your  oath  of  office  binds  you  not  only  to  do  no 
wrong  yourself,  but  to  see  that  wrong  is  not  done  to 
others.  Nicolas  Eginond  may  denounce  Luther  at 
your  or  the  Pope's  bidding.  It  is  no  business  of 
mine.  But  it  is  business  of  mine  when  without  any 
bidding  he  tells  lies  of  me,  and  it  is  your  duty  to  re- 
strain his  tongue.  On  St.  Denys's  Day,  at  sermon  in 
St.  Peter's  Church,  I  myself  sitting  underneath  him, 
he  turned  on  me  and  called  me  Luther's  ally.  It  is 
false.  I  had  seen  gifts  in  Luther  which,  if  rightly 
used,  might  make  him  an  ornament  to  Christ's 
Church;  and  when  infamous  libels  were  spread  about 
him  I  said  I  would  sooner  see  him  corrected  than 
destroyed.  If  this  is  to  be  his  ally,  I  am  his  ally 
still,  and  so  is  the  Pope,  and  so  are  you  if  you  are  a 
1  Ep.  dxxxix.,  abridged. 


206  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Christian.  But  this  Carmelite  tells  the  people  that  I 
defend  Luther  on  the  points  on  which  he  is  condemned, 
and  he  appeals  to  my  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Mentz.  Is  it  to  defend  a  man  to  show  that  his  mean- 
ing has  been  misrepresented  ?  He  said  I  had  not 
written  against  Luther.  True,  I  have  not.  I  may 
not  censure  what  I  have  not  read,  specially  when  it  is 
a  matter  of  life  or  death,  and  I  am  not  so  foolish  as 
to  volunteer  into  a  dispute  when  I  may  lawfully  look 
on.  What  right  has  Egmond  to  single  out  me  ?  He 
continued  :  "  Luther  has  fallen  into  his  terrible  here- 
sies by  studying  the  new  learning.  Stand,  I  warn 
you,  in  the  old  paths,  avoid  novelties,  keep  to  the 
ancient  Vulgate."  This  was  meant  for  me  and  my 
New  Testament.  I  am  accused  of  making  a  new 
gospel. 

I  had  to  listen  to  all  this.  His  face  blazed  with 
fervour.  He  would  never  have  stopped  had  he  not 
seen  that  half  his  hearers  were  laughing,  and  the  other 
half  muttering  or  hissing.  The  Sunday  after  he 
preached  the  same  sermon  at  Antwerp,  and  added 
that  such  fellows  as  I  should  be  sent  to  the  stake 
unless  they  repented.  He  was  like  a  drunken  orator 
spouting  from  a  waggon.  An  ally  of  Luther?  I  have 
never  been  an  ally  of  Luther.  There  are  good  and 
learned  men  who  maintain  that  Luther  has  written 
nothing  for  which  there  is  not  sound  authority ;  and  I 
neither  approve  nor  ever  will  approve  of  crushing  a 
man  before  he  has  been  confuted  by  reason  and  Scrip- 
ture, and  allowed  an  opportunity  of  recanting.  If 
this  be  to  favour  him,  many  a  wise  man  is  on  his  side. 
Even  the  Pope's  Bull,  smacking  though  it  does  of 
those  tyrannical  mendicants,  gives  him  time  to  repent. 
The  clergy  are  told  to  preach  against  him,  but  they  need 
not  call  him  Antichrist  or  a  monster  of  wickedness. 
I  advised  that  he  should  be  read  and  answered,  and 
that  there  should  be  no  appealing  to  the  mob.  You 
know  how  things  have  gone.  There  are  thousands 
of  Rabbins  who  are  gods  in  their  own  eyes.  Not 
one  of  them  has    attempted  a   real   reply.     Men    of 


Lecture  XIII.  267 

noble  natures  may  be  led,  but  cannot  be  forced. 
Tyrants  drive,  asses  are  driven.  By  burning  Luther's 
books  you  may  rid  him  off  your  bookshelves,  but  you 
will  not  rid  him  out  of  the  minds  of  mankind. 

My  Carmelite  rails  about  novelties  and  the  old 
ways,  improvements  all  to  be  suspected.  He  was 
alluding  of  course  to  the  learned  languages  and  my 
New  Testament.  The  Pope  himself  has  ordered  that 
Greek  shall  be  studied  at  Rome.  He  has  expressly 
sanctioned  my  New  Testament.  If  the  Carmelites 
make  so  light  of  the  Pope's  judgment  when  it  does 
not  please  them,  why  should  we  think  conclusive  the 
Pope's  condemnation  of  Luther  ?  He  calls  everything 
new  to  which  he  is  not  accustomed.  Hilary,  Cyprian, 
Jerome,  Augustine,  all  are  new,  and  nothing  is  old 
but  the  scholastic  formulas  and  glosses.  He  is  rash 
in  saying  Luther  borrowed  from  me.  Luther  took  his 
errors,  if  errors  they  are,  from  the  Apostles  and  the 
Fathers,  and  it  is  unfair  to  denounce  an  innocent  man 
from  the  pulpit  to  an  ignorant  mob. 

Everyone  was  not  as  violent  as  the  theologians  of 
Louvain.  A  conference  of  moderate  persons  was  held 
at  Cologne,  at  the  instance  of  the  Imperial  Council, 
to  consider  what  should  be  done.  Erasmus  was  in- 
vited to  attend. 

TO    CONRAD    PEUTINGER,    COUNCILLOR    OF    THE    EM- 
PIRE.1 

November  9,  1520. 

We  have  been  consulting  how  this  tornado  can  be 
quieted.  If  not  wisely  handled  it  may  wreck  the 
Christian  religion  itself.  Fearful  consequences  have 
come  of  lighter  causes,  and  for  myself  I  think,  like 
Cicero,  that  a  bad  peace  is  better  than  the  justest 
war.  The  quarrel  has  gone  deeper  than  I  like.  It  is 
not  yet  past  cure,  but  the  wound  must  be  so  healed 
that  it  shall  not  break  out  again.  Strong  measures 
are  wanted.     The  Pope's  authority  as  Christ's  Vicar 

1  Ep.  dxlii.,  coudeused. 


208  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

must  be  upheld,  but  in  upholding  it  Gospel  truth  must 
not  be  sacrificed.  Leo,  I  believe,  thinks  on  this  as  we 
do.  The  question  is  not  what  Luther  deserves,  but 
what  is  best  for  the  peace  of  the  world.  The  persons 
who  are  to  prosecute,  the  remedies  which  are  to  be 
applied,  must  be  carefully  chosen.  Some  are  for  vio- 
lence, not  to  defend  the  Pope,  but  to  keep  out  light, 
and  in  destroying  Luther  to  destroy  knowledge  along 
with  him.  The  true  cause  of  all  this  passion  is  hatred 
of  learning,  and  it  is  on  this  account  that  many  per- 
sons now  support  Luther  who  would  otherwise  leave 
him.  The  contagion,  we  think,  has  spread  far,  and 
the  German  nation  will  be  dangerous  if  provoked  to 
active  resistance.  Force  never  answers  in  such  cases, 
and  other  means  must  be  found.  The  reports  of  the 
state  of  morals  at  Rome  have  caused  vast  numbers  of 
men  to  dislike  and  even  abhor  it.  On  both  sides 
there  has  been  want  of  discretion.  If  every  word  had 
been  true  which  Luther  has  said  he  has  so  said  it  as 
to  grudge  truth  the  victory.  If  his  opponents'  case 
had  been  the  best  possible  they  would  have  spoilt  it 
by  their  wrongheadedness.  Luther  was  advised  to 
be  more  moderate.  He  wrote  more  passionately  every 
day.  His  prosecutors  were  cautioned  too,  but  they 
continued  so  savage  that  they  might  have  seemed  in 
collusion  with  him.  They  are  of  the  sort  that  fatten 
on  the  world's  misfortunes  and  delight  in  confusion. 
No  good  can  come  till  private  interests  are  laid  aside. 
Human  devices  will  come  to  nought.  It  is  not  for  me 
to  judge  the  Pope's  sentence.  Some  regret  the  tone 
of  the  Bull,  but  impute  it  to  his  advisers,  not  to  him- 
self. The  fear  is  that,  if  Luther's  books  are  burnt 
and  Luther  executed,  things  will  only  grow  worse.  If 
he  is  removed  others  will  take  his  place,  and  there  will 
first  be  war  and  then  a  schism.  Luther's  conduct  and 
the  causes  which  led  to  it  ought  to  be  referred  to  a 
small  committee  of  good  learned  men  who  will  be 
above  suspicion.  The  Pope  need  not  be  bound  to 
bow  to  their  authority.  It  is  rather  thought  that  this 
is  the  course  which  he  would  himself  prefer  as  promis- 


Lecture  XIII.  269 

ing  best  for  peace.     Our  hopes  are  in  the  approaching 
Diet. 

The  Emperor's  Council  were  evidently  in  extreme 
perplexity.  The  Pope  and  the  Sacred  College  were 
equally  at  a  loss.  In  better  ages  they  would  have 
burnt  Luther  at  the  stake  and  cleared  away  the  whole 
business.  But  these  time-honoured  methods  had 
grown  dangerous.  The  Vatican  thunder  and  light- 
ning  had  passed  unheeded.  The  great  novelty  of  the 
situation  —  how  great  we  can  now  hardly  realise  — 
was  that  for  the  first  time  for  many  centuries  a  spirit- 
ual question,  hitherto  exclusively  reserved  to  Church 
courts  and  councils,  was  to  be  referred  to  a  Diet  where 
lay  barons  and  representatives  would  sit  as  judges  and 
an  Emperor  would  preside.  This  alone  taught  Rome 
caution.  Cardinal  Campegio,  an  old,  prudent,  accom- 
plished man  of  the  world,  was  despatched  to  see  what 
could  be  done,  and  mend  the  blunders  of  Aleander 
and  Cajetan.  Campegio  naturally  applied  to  Eras- 
mus for  help.  Erasmus  replied  in  another  extremely 
valuable  letter.  After  regretting  that  he  had  been 
unable  to  go  to  Rome  and  speak  in  person  to  the  Pope, 
he  gave  his  own  explanation  of  what  had  happened, 
and  he  attributed  the  whole  convulsion  to  the  religions 
orders,  and  especially  to  the  Carmelites  and  Domini- 
cans. 

TO   CAMPEGIO.1 

December  6,  1520. 

Jerome,  who  was  himself  a  monk,  was  the  most 
effective  painter  of  monastic  vices,  and  sketches  with 
satiric  salt  the  lives  of  the  brothers  and  sisters.  The 
scene  is  shifted,  the  actors  are  changed,  but  the  play 
is  the  same.  When  the  Reuchlin  storm  was  over 
came  these  writings  of  Luther,  and  they  snatched  at 
them  to   finish   Reuchlin,   Erasmus   and    learning  all 

1  Ep.  dxlvii.,  abridged. 


270  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

together.  Tliey  cried  that  learning  was  producing 
heresies,  schisms  and  Antichrist,  and  they  published  my 
private  letters  to  the  Archbishop  of  Mentz  and  to  Lu- 
ther. As  to  Luther  himself,  I  perceived  that  the  bet- 
ter a  man  was  the  less  he  was  Luther's  enemy.  The 
world  was  sick  of  teaching  which  gave  it  nothing  but 
glosses  and  formulas,  and  was  thirsting  after  the  water 
of  life  from  the  Gospels  and  Epistles.  I  approved  of 
what  seemed  good  in  his  work.  I  told  him  in  a  letter 
that  if  he  would  moderate  his  language  he  might  be  a 
shining  light,  and  that  the  Pope,  I  did  not  doubt, 
would  be  his  friend.  What  was  there  in  this  to  cry 
out  against  ?  I  gave  him  the  truest  and  kindest  advice. 
I  had  never  seen  him  —  I  have  not  seen  him  at  all.  I 
had  read  little  that  he  had  written,  nor  had  matters 
taken  their  present  form.  A  few  persons  only  were 
clamouring  at  him  in  alarm  for  their  own  pockets. 
They  called  on  me  to  pronounce  against  him.  The 
same  persons  had  said  before  that  I  was  nothing  but  a 
grammarian.  How  was  a  grammarian  to  decide  a 
point  of  heresy  ?  I  said  I  could  not  do  it  till  I  had 
examined  his  authorities.  He  had  taken  his  opinions 
from  the  early  Fathers,  and  if  he  had  quoted  them  by 
name  he  could  hardly  have  been  censured.  I  said  I  had 
no  leisure  for  it,  nor  could  I  indeed  properly  meddle 
when  great  persons  were  busy  in  replying  to  him. 
They  accused  me  of  encouraging  him  by  telling  him 
that  he  had  friends  in  England.  I  told  him  so  to  in- 
duce him  to  listen  to  advice.  Not  a  creature  hitherto 
has  given  him  any  friendly  counsel  at  all.  No  one 
has  yet  answered  him  or  pointed  out  his  faults.  They 
have  merely  howled  out  heresy  and  Antichrisf. 

I  have  myself  simply  protested  against  his  being 
condemned  before  he  has  been  heard  in  his  defence. 
The  penalty  for  hei'esy  used  to  be  only  excommunica- 
tion. No  crime  now  is  more  cruelly  punished.  But 
how,  while  there  are  persons  calling  themselves 
bishops,  and  professing  to  be  guardians  of  the  truth, 
whose  moral  character  is  abominable,  can  it  be  right 
to  persecute  a  man  of  unblemished  life,  in  whose  writ- 


Lecture  XIII.  271 

ings  distinguished  and  excellent  persons  have  found 
so  much  to  admire  ?  The  object  has  been  simply  to 
destroy  him  and  his  books  out  of  mind  and  memory, 
and  it  can  only  be  done  when  he  is  proved  wrong  by 
argument  and  Scripture  before  a  respectable  com- 
mission that  can  be  trusted.  Doubtless,  the  Pope's 
authority  is  vast;  but  the  vaster  it  is,  the  less  it 
ought  to  be  influenced  by  private  affections.  The 
opinions  of  pious,  learned  men  should  receive  atten- 
tion, and  the  Pope  has  no  worse  enemies  than  his 
foolish  defenders.  He  can  crush  any  man  if  he 
pleases,  but  empires  based  only  on  terror  do  not  last, 
and  the  weightier  the  Pope's  judgment  and  the  graver 
the  charge,  the  greater  caution  should  be  used. 
Every  sensible  man,  secular  or  spiritual,  even  among 
the  Dominicans  themselves,  thinks  as  I  do  about  this. 
Those  who  wish  Luther  condemned  disapprove  of  the 
methods  now  pursued  against  him,  and  what  I  am  here 
saying  is  more  for  the  good  of  the  Pope  and  theology 
than  in  the  interest  of  Luther.  If  the  decrees  of  the 
Holy  See  and  of  the  doctors  of  the  Church  are  to 
carry  weight  they  must  come  from  men  of  irreproach- 
able character,  whose  judgment  we  can  feel  sure  will 
not  be  influenced  by  worldly  motives. 

If  we  want  truth,  every  man  ought  to  be  free  to  say 
what  he  thinks  without  fear.  If  the  advocates  of  one 
side  are  to  be  rewarded  with  mitres,  and  the  advocates 
on  the  other  with  rope  or  stake,  truth  will  not  be 
heard.  Out  of  the  many  universities  in  Europe,  two 
have  condemned  certain  propositions  of  Luther;  but 
even  these  two  did  not  agree.  Then  came  the  terrible 
Bull,  with  the  Pope's  name  upon  it.  Luther's  books 
were  to  be  burnt,  and  he  himself  was  denounced  to 
the  world  as  a  heretic.  Nothing  coidd  have  been 
more  invidious  or  unwise.  The  Bull  itself  was  unlike 
Leo  X.,  and  those  who  were  sent  to  publish  it  only 
made  matters  worse.  It  is  dangerous,  however,  for 
secular  princes  to  oppose  the  Papacy,  and  I  am  not 
likely  to  be  braver  than  princes,  especially  when  I  can 
do  nothing.     The   corruptions    of  the  Roman  Court 


'll'l  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

may  require  reform  extensive  and  immediate,  but  I 
and  the  like  of  me  tire  not  called  on  to  take  a  work 
like  that  upon  ourselves.  I  would  rather  see  things 
left  as  they  are  than  to  see  a  revolution  which  may 
lead  to  one  knows  not  what.  Others  may  be  martyrs 
if  they  like.  I  aspire  to  no  such  honour.  Some  hate 
me  for  being  a  Lutheran ;  some  for  not  being  a 
Lutheran.  You  may  assure  yourself  that  Erasmus  has 
been,  and  always  will  be,  a  faithful  subject  of  the 
Roman  See.  But  I  think,  and  many  think  with  me, 
that  there  would  be  better  chance  of  a  settlement  if 
there  was  less  ferocity,  if  the  management  was  placed 
in  the  hands  of  men  of  weight  and  learning,  if  the 
Pope  would  follow  his  own  disposition  and  would  not 
let  himself  be  influenced  by  others. 

This  letter  has  been  often  quoted,  among  others,  to 
prove  that  Erasmus  was  a  mean  creature,  and  had  not 
the  courage  of  his  convictions.  I  do  not  know  that  a 
readiness  to  be  a  martyr  is  a  very  sublime  quality,  or 
that  those  who  needlessly  rush  on  their  own  destruc- 
tion show  any  particular  wisdom.  Such  supreme  sac- 
rifice may  at  times  become  a  duty,  but  only  when  a 
man  has  no  better  use  for  his  life.  It  is  not  a  duty  of 
which  he  need  go  in  search.  I  am  tempted  to  make 
a  general  observation.  Princes,  statesmen,  thinkers 
who  have  played  a  great  part  in  the  direction  of 
human  affairs,  have  been  men  of  superior  character, 
men  in  whose  presence  ordinary  persons  are  conscious 
of  inferiority.  Their  biographers  —  the  writers  of 
history  generally  —  are  of  commoner  metal.  They  re- 
sent, perhaps  unconsciously,  the  sense  that  they  stand 
on  a  lower  level,  and  revenge  their  humiliation  when 
they  come  to  describe  great  men  by  attributing  to 
them  the  motives  which  influence  themselves.  Unable 
to  conceive,  or  unwilling  to  admit,  that  men  of  lofty 
character  may  have  had  other  objects  than  are  familiar 


Lecture  XIII.  273 

to  their  personal  experience,  they  delight  to  show  that 
the  great  were  not  great  after  all,  but  were  very  poor 
creatures,  inferior,  when  the  truth  is  known  about 
them,  to  the  relator  of  their  actions ;  and  they  have 
thus  reduced  history  to  the  dung-heap  of  humiliating 
nonsense  which  a  large  part  of  it  has  unfortunately 
become. 

I  do  not  wish  to  say  more.     You  will  take  my  ob- 
servation for  what  it  is  worth. 


LECTURE   XIV. 

Erasmus,  I  consider,  may  be  pardoned  for  not 
wishing  to  be  burnt  at  the  stake  in  a  cause  with  which 
he  had  imperfect  sympathy.  Burning  at  the  stake  is 
not  pleasant  in  itself,  and  there  is  no  occasion  to  go  in 
search  of  it.  The  Papacy  was  the  only  visible  centre 
of  spiritual  authority.  Revolution  meant  anarchy 
and  consequences  which  none  could  foresee.  As  long 
as  there  was  a  hope  that  the  Pope  might  take  a  rea- 
sonable course,  a  sensible  person  might  still  wish  to 
make  the  best  of  him  ;  and  if  Campegio  and  his  mas- 
ter had  been  able  to  follow  Erasmus's  advice,  I  do  not 
know  that  mankind  would  have  been  the  worse  for  it. 
Erasmus  was  in  sufficient  danger  as  he  stood.  The 
monks  hated  him  full  as  much  as  they  hated  Luther, 
and  would  make  short  work  with  him  if  they  could 
have  their  way.  The  Diet  was  close  approaching. 
They  were  marshalling  their  forces  and  strengthening 
their  positions.  The  Louvain  doctors  insisted  that  if 
Erasmus  did  not  agree  with  Luther  he  should  write 
against  him.  Erasmus  knew  that  he  was  refusing  at 
his  peril,  but  he  told  them  that  he  had  no  intention  of 
making  enemies  of  the  whole  German  nation,  and  he 
would  not  do  it.  He  describes  what  passed  in  a 
humorous  letter   to   Francis  Cranvelt,  Councillor   of 

Bruges  : 1  — 

December  18,  1520. 

"  If  you  will  not  write,"  said  the  Carmelite  Egmond 
to  me,  "  then  admit  that  we  Louvainers  have  had  the 

1  Ep.  dl.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XIV.  275 

best  of  the  argument."  I  said  the  Louvainers  would 
have  plenty  of  people  to  tell  them  that.  For  myself 
I  could  not  give  an  opinion  till  I  had  seen  what  they 
had  said.  A  victory  did  not  amount  to  much  which 
was  won  by  Bulls  and  hot  coals.  He  almost  spat 
upon  me.  The  monks  now  try  to  finish  me  with  their 
sermons,  the  divines  partly  conniving,  partly  instigat- 
ing. Just  like  them.  They  say  nothing  to  my  face, 
but  slander  and  lie  behind  my  back.  Egmond  bids 
his  congregation  pray  for  the  conversion  of  Luther 
and  Erasmus. 

Erasmus  again  cpmplained  to  the  Rector  of  the 
University,  and  a  curious  scene  came  off  shortly  after 
in  the  Rector's  presence,  of  which  he  sends  an  account 
to  Sir  Thomas  More : 1  — 

We  met,  the  Rector  in  the  chair ;  I  on  his  right,  my 
Carmelite  on  his  left,  the  Rector  between  us,  lest  from 
words  we  might  pass  to  fists  and  nails.  The  Rector 
stated  my  complaint.  Egmond  denied  that  he  had 
injured  me  in  his  sermons,  and  demanded  when  and 
how.  I  said  it  was  an  injury  to  tell  lies  about  a  man 
in  public.  He  was  red  in  the  face  already,  though  it 
was  in  the  forenoon.  He  turned  purple.  "  Why  do 
you  slander  us  in  your  books  ?  "  said  he.  "  I  mention 
no  names,"  answer  I.  "  Nor  I  yours  in  my  sermons," 
says  he.  "  My  books  are  not  Scripture,"  say  I ;  "  I 
may  write  what  I  think,  and  I  have  said  much  less  in 
them  than  I  might  have  said.  You  have  spoken  a 
direct  lie  in  telling  the  people  that  I  support  Luther, 
which  I  never  have  in  the  sense  which  you  wished 
them  to  understand."  He  railed  like  a  madman. 
"  You  —  you,"  he  said,  "  are  the  cause  of  all  the 
ti'ouble.  You  are  a  knave,  a  double-faced  villain." 
His  words  came  from  him  as  if  he  was  vomiting  them. 
I  grew  angry.  I  had  a  word  on  my  tongue.  It  was  not 
"  Raca,"  and  had  more  to  do  with  smell  than  sound  ; 
but  I  checked  myself  to  spare  the  Rector's  feelings. 

1  Ep.  dliv.,  abridged. 


276  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

"  I  could  retort  if  I  liked,"  said  I.  "  He  calls  me 
knave  :  I  might  call  him  fox.  He  calls  me  '  double ' : 
I  might  call  him '  quadruple.'  But  let  us  argue,  and 
not  scold  like  women.  Imagine,"  said  I.  "  I  won't 
imagine "  said  lie  ;  "  you  poets  imagine,  and  every 
word  is  a  lie."  "Grant,  then,"  said  I.  "I  won't 
grant,"  said  he.  "Let  us  assume,  then,"  said  I., 
"  But  it  is  not  so,"  said  he.  The  Rector  could  hardly 
make  him  listen. 

"  Granted,"  said  I,  "  that  I  have  written  things 
which  I  had  better  not  have  written,  it  was  no  busi- 
ness of  yours  to  abuse  your  position  as  a  preacher  to 
revenge  what  you  think  your  wrongs.  You  might  have 
remonstrated  privateby,  or  you  might  have  brought  an 
action."  "  Ah,"  says  he,  "  would  n't  you  like  to  have 
the  chance  ?  "  "  Of  what  ?  "  said  I ;  "  of  preaching  ?  " 
"  Yes,  preaching,"  says  he.  "  Well,  I  did  preach 
once,"said  I,  "  and  I  think  I  could  do  it  as  well  as 
you ;  but  I  prefer  writing  books.  However,  I  should 
not  object  to  your  preaching  if  you  woidd  teach  mor- 
ality." 

"  What  good  have  you  ever  done  ?  "  says  he.  "  Writ- 
ten books,"  say  I.  "  Bad  books,"  says  he.  "  I  have 
restored  the  text  of  Scripture,"  say  I.  "  Falsified  it," 
says  he.  "  The  Pope  approves,"  say  I.  "  I  have  not 
seen  the  Pope's  letter  to  that  effect,"  answered  he,  with 
a  sneer.  "  You  shall  see  it  if  you  like,"  say  I.  "  I  will 
see  nothing  belonging  to  you,"  says  he.  He  wrent  on  to 
speak  of  the  kindness  which  the  Louvain  professors  had 
wished  to  show  me.  I  said  I  was  obliged,  but  I  had 
-not  needed  their  help,  and  had  not  met  with  any. 
"  Your  evil  offices  I  have  experienced,"  I  said,  "  and 
for  the  rest  you  have  asked  me  to  dinners  which  I  do 
not  like."  I  reminded  him  of  a  Wednesday  dinner  at 
the  College,  where  he  ate  fish  enough  for  four  prize- 
fighters. I  asked  him  if  we  had  not  pledged  each 
other,  made  peace,  and  agreed  to  an  amnesty.  He 
said  it  was  not  so.  The  Rector,  to  smooth  matters, 
said  he  had  not  understood  that  peace  was  made  in 
direct  terms.     I  inquired  how  often  we  must  drink 


Lecture  XIV.  277 

together  to  constitute  a  "pax  theologica."  "You 
mock,"  says  he;  "you  would  make  out  that  we  are  a 
set  of  drunkards."  I  asked  when  I  had  accused  him  of 
being  drunk.  "  You  said  I  was  uvidus  after  dinner," 
said  he.  "  I  did  not  say  so,"  said  I ;  "  I  mentioned  only 
what  others  told  me,  viz.,  that  you  had  used  bad  lan- 
guage, and  your  brethren  excused  you  on  the  ground 
that  you  were  uvidus.'''' 

A  great  deal  more  of  this,  and  then  :  — 

Egmond  went  on  to  say  that  he  would  go  on  de- 
nouncing Luther  till  he  had  made  an  end  of  him.  I 
.said  he  might  denounce  Luther  till  he  burst  if  it  gave 
him  any  satisfaction  ;  I  complained  of  his  denouncing 
me.  But  he  only  made  the  people  laugh  at  him.  I 
told  him  it  was  useless  to  burn  Luther's  books  unless 
you  could  burn  them  out  of  people's  memories." 
"  Yes,  indeed,"  he  said,  "  and  it  is  all  due  to  you." 

We  only  quarrelled.  The  Rector  interposed  at  last. 
He  said  it  was  unworthy  of  us  to  wrangle.  How  was 
the  dispute  to  be  made  up  ? 

"What  am  I  to  do,"  said  I,  "since  it  seems  drink- 
ing together  is  not  enough  ?  "  "  You  have  injured 
our  good  name,"  Egmond  answered ;  "  undo  your 
work."  "  How  am  I  to  undo  it  ?  "  ask  I.  "  Write," 
says  he,  "  that  there  are  good  and  honest  divines  at 
Louvain."  "  I  never  denied  it,"  said  I ;  "  I  blamed 
particular  persons,  and  if  you  will  prove  me  wrong  I 
will  withdraw  what  I  said." 

"  You  charge  us  with  slandering  you  behind  your 
back,"  says  he  ;  "I  will  tell  you  what  you  are  to  your 
face." 

"I  fear  from  your  manners  that  you  will  spit  in 
my  face,"  say  I. 

The  Rector  brought  us  back  to  Luther. 

"  You  have  written  in  support  of  Luther,"  says 
Egmond  ;  "  now  write  against  him." 

"I  have  not  supported  Luther,"  said  I.  "I  have 
no  leisure,  and  it  would  be  unfair  to  strike  a  fallen 


man." 


278  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

"  Then  write,"  says  he,  "  that  we  have  beaten 
him." 

"  It  is  for  those  who  win  the  victory  to  shout  for 
triumph,"  said  I.  Besides,  I  was  not  sure  they  had 
beaten  him.     The  arguments  had  not  been  published. 

"  Did  I  not  tell  you,"  said  he,  turning  to  the  Rec- 
tor, "  that  we  should  make  nothing  of  this  man  ?  I 
shall  continue  to  hold  him  a  Lutheran  till  he  consents 
to  write  against  Luther." 

"  Then  you  are  yourself  a  Lutheran,"  said  I,  "for 
you  have  written  nothing  against  him." 

We  parted  without  an  adieu.  He  boasted  after- 
wards at  a  drinking-  party  how  he  had  stood  up  to 
Erasmus. 

The  Rector  tells  the  story  with  much  amusement, 
and  wonder  at  my  forbearance. 

So  passed  the  winter,  Erasmus  fighting  beasts  at 
Ephesus.  They  were  rash  in  attempting  to  drive 
him  to  write,  for  he  knew  that  he  had  but  to  declare 
himself  on  the  revolutionary  side  to  assure  Luther  an 
undisputed  victory  ;  and  he  felt  it  naturally  hard 

"  When  not  to  be  deserved  reproach  of  being." 

Campegio,  after  receiving  his  letter,  came  to  Lou- 
vain  to  consult  with  him.  Aleander  himself,  who 
was  to  prosecute  Luther  before  the  Diet,  came. 
Many  eminent  men  begged  Erasmus  to  give  Luther 
open  help  while  the  Diet  was  assembling  —  one  espe- 
cially, vir  prmpotens,  whom  he  calls  N ,  perhaps 

the  Elector  of  Saxe,  perhaps  the  Landgrave  of  Hesse. 

This  also  he  could  not  do,  as  he  explains  to  N 

at  length  : 1  — 

Louvain,  January  28,  1521. 

The  world  is  splitting  into  factions.  I  have  spoken 
with  Campegio  and  also  with  Aleander.  They  were 
both  gracious   and  gave  hopes  of   a  peaceful   settle- 

1  Ep.  dlxiii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XIV.  279 

ment,  but  my  chief  confidence  is  in  the  Pope's  own 
disposition.  You  tell  me  that  a  few  words  of  mine 
will  carry  more  weight  than  papal  thunderbolts.  You 
could  urge  nothing  more  calculated  to  keep  me  silent. 
Who  am  I  that  I  should  contradict  the  Catholic 
Church?  If  I  was  sure  that  the  Holy  See  was  wrong 
I  would  say  so  on  a  proper  occasion,  but  it  is  no  duty 
of  mine  to  decide.  My  work  has  been  to  restore  a 
buried  literature,  and  recall  divines  from  their  hair- 
splittings to  a  knowledge  of  the  New  Testament.  I 
have  never  been  a  dogmatist.  I  think  the  Church 
has  defined  many  points  which  might  have  been  left 
open  without  hurt  to  the  faith.  The  matter  now  in 
hand  can  be  arranged  if  the  Pope,  the  princes,  and 
your  Highness  will  refer  it  to  a  small  u  umber  of 
learned  good  men. 

But  the  busybodies  who  shout  and  rage  and  flatter 
the  Holy  See  must  be  kept  at  a  distance.  None  have 
more  recommended  Luther  to  the  German  people 
than  those  who  have  cursed  him  loudest,  and  the 
other  side  who  rail  and  curse  at  the  Pope  must  be 
kept  out  also. 

I  know  not  how  Popes  came  by  their  authority.  I 
suppose  it  was  as  the  bishops  came  by  theirs.  Each 
Presbytery  chose  one  of  its  members  as  president  to 
prevent  divisions.  Bishops  similarly  found  it  expedi- 
ent to  have  a  chief  bishop,  to  check  rivalries  and 
defend  the  Church  against  the  secular  powers.  I 
know  the  charges  brought  against  the  Court  of  Rome, 
but  all  reports  need  not  be  true,  nor,  if  true,  need  the 
popes  be  responsible  for  all  that  is  done  at  Rome. 
Many  wrong  things  escape  their  eye,  and  many  are 
done  against  their  will.  St.  Peter  himself,  if  he  now 
ruled,  would  have  to  connive  at  much.  But  however 
this  be,  more  will  be  effected  by  moderate  remon- 
strance than  by  reviling  and  passion.  I  can  be  no 
party  to  violence.  If  offences  must  come  tluy  shall 
not  come  through  me.  If  Luther's  books  are  in  your 
people's  hands  let  them  do  as  I  do,  take  the  good  in 
them  and  leave  the  bad.    I  will  say  nothing  of  Luther 


280  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

himself.  But  this  I  insist  on,  that  the  worst  part  of 
what  has  happened  is  due  to  the  Dominican  and  Car- 
melite theologians,  and  if  the  Pope  knew  what  they 
were  about  he  would  not  he  particularly  obliged  to 
them.  Luther's  style  is  not  mine,  but  it  is  folly  to 
call  him  ass,  goose,  blockhead,  heretic,  Antichrist, 
pest  of  humanity.  His  books  are  only  read  the  more 
eagerly,  and  the  Pope's  Bull  has  failed  to  frighten 
people  away  from  him.  Divines,  monkish  buffoons, 
now  and  then  a  bishop  or  two,  sing  to  the  same  note. 
The  Papacy  is  defended  by  packs  of  barking  curs. 
The  world's  eyes  are  opening,  and  unless  they  change 
x  their  note  they  will  effect  nothing.  You  suggest  that 
I.  should  join  Luther.  I  will  join  him  readily  if  I  see 
him  on  the  side  of  the  Catholic  Church.  I  do  not 
accuse  him  of  having  broken  with  it.  It  is  not  for 
me  to  pronounce.  To  his  own  Master  he  stands  or 
falls.  But  if  the  worst  comes  and  the  Church  is  di- 
vided, I  shall  stand  on  the  Rock  of  Peter  till  peace 
returns.     Farewell. 

The  talk  about  the  Rock  of  Peter  sounds  conven- 
tional and  insincere,  but  Erasmus  obviously  meant  it. 
The  disease  in  the  Church,  as  Erasmus  saw  it,  lay  in 
the  propensity  to  dogmatic  definitions.  Each  defini- 
tion of  doctrine  beyond  the  Apostles'  Creed  had  led  to 
dissension  and  hatred,  and  he  dreaded  any  fresh  addi- 
tion to  the  already  too  numerous  formulas  from  what- 
ever side  it  might  come.  Luther's  mind,  at  white 
heat,  was  flowing  into  antagonistic  doctrinal  asser- 
tions. These  would  be  met  by  counter-assertions,  and 
the  war  of  words  would  turn  to  a  war  of  sword  and 
canYton.  The  hope  of  Erasmus  was  that  Poj)e  and 
Council,  if  not  further  irritated,  might  be  content  to 
leave  opinion  free  on  subjects  which  no  one  coidd  un- 
derstand —  be  content  that  Christians  should  live  to- 
gether, to  use  the  words  of  our  own  prayer  in  the 
Liturgy,  "  in  unity  of  spirit  "  (not  of  definitions),  "  in 


Lecture  XIV.  281 

the  bond  of  peace  "  (not  of  strife),  "  in  righteousness 
of  life,"  the  object  of  all  religions,  and  that  they 
should  set  themselves  to  reform  the  scandals  in  their 
own  practice,  which  were  crying  to  Heaven  for  reform. 
Such  a  turn  of  things,  even  at  that  late  hour,  might 
be  hoped  for  without  insincerity,  as  offering  the  best 
prospect  for  Christendom.  But  it  is  dangerous  for  a 
man  to  throw  himself 

"  Between  the  pass  and  fell  incensed  points 
Of  mighty  opposites. ' ' 

The  Lutherans  abused  Erasmus  for  a  coward.  They 
insisted  that  he  thought  as  they  did,  but  dared  not 
confess  it.  The  Lou  vain  doctors  were  of  the  same 
opinion,  and  struck  at  him  from  the  opposite  camp. 

TO   NICHOLAS   BEKALD.1 

Louvain,  February  16,  1521. 
The  Dominicans  pelt  me  daily  in  their  sermons.  I 
bear  it  for  the  sake  of  the  Faith,  and  am  a  martyr  like 
Stephen.  Stephen,  however,  was  stoned  but  once,  and 
was  then  at  rest.  I  am  battered  unceasingly  with 
stones  which  are  poisoned.  They  care  not  for  the  dis- 
grace to  themselves  so  long  as  they  can  injure  me. 
Luther  has  discredited  me  and  my  cause.  All  know 
that  the  Church  has  been  tyrannical  and  corrupt,  and 
many  have  been  busy  thinking  how  it  can  be  reformed. 
But  medicines  wrongly  applied  make  the  patient 
worse,  and  when  attempts  are  made  and  fail  the  symp- 
.  toms  only  grow  more  dangerous.  Would  that  Luther 
had  held  his  peace,  or  had  gone  to  work  more  dis- 
creetly. I  care  nothing  for  the  fate  which  may  over- 
take him,  but  I  do  care  for  the  cause  of  Christ,  and  I 
see  churchmen  in  such  a  temper  that,  if  they  triumph, 
farewell  to  Gospel  truth. 

You  know  generally  the  story  of  the  Diet  of  Worms. 
It  was  a  gathering  of  all  that  was  greatest  in  Ger- 

1  Ep.  dlxvi. 


282  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

many,  the  young  Emperor  presiding.  Princes,  barons, 
representatives  of  the  free  towns  and  states,  bishops, 
abbots,  cardinals,  a  legate  from  the  Holy  See,  with  his 
suite  of  divines  and  canon  lawyers,  all  collected  to  con- 
sider what  was  to  be  done  with  a  single  poor  Saxon 
monk.  The  Pope  had  prepared  for  the  occasion  by 
issuing  in  Passion  Week  his  famous  Bull  In  Coena 
Domini  against  the  enemies  of  the  Church,  and  had 
included  Luther  by  name  in  it.  Yet  you  observe,  as 
a  sign  of  the  changing  times,  that  Luther  was  not 
brought  before  the  Diet  as  a  prisoner.  He  was  invited 
to  appear  by  a  letter  from  the  Emperor,  promising 
that  he  should  be  heard  in  his  defence,  and  under  the 
protection  of  a  safe-conduct.  Plis  friends,  remember- 
ing that  Sigismund's  safe-conduct  had  not  saved  Huss 
at  Constance,  advised  Luther  not  to  attend.  You  will 
recollect  his  famous  answer,  that  he  would  go  to 
Worms  if  there  were  as  many  devils  there  as  there 
were  tiles  on  the  housetops.  You  will  remember  how 
he  stood  alone  before  that  stern  assembly,  how  his 
books  were  produced,  how  he  was  required  to  retract 
them,  how  he  said  he  would  retract  them  all  if  he  was 
proved  wrong  by  Holy  Scripture.  To  the  mere  sen- 
tence of  the  Pope  he  would  not  submit.  "  Ich  kann 
nicht  anders,"  he  said  :  "  I  can  do  no  other."  He  was 
condemned.  He  was  placed  under  the  ban  of  Empire, 
ordered  to  return  home  and  wait  till  his  safe-conduct 
was  expired,  when  sentence  would  be  executed  on  him. 
The  Church  party  would  have  again  treated  the  safe- 
conduct  as  a  farce,  have  seized  and  burnt  him  on  the 
spot.  But  though  he  was  cast  by  a  majority  of  votes, 
the  Lords  and  Commons  of  Germany  did  not  choose 
that  there  shoidd  be  a  second  treachery  of  Constance. 
The  Emperor  refused  to  commence  his  reign  by  a 
breach  of  promise,  and  other  questions  were  stirring 


Lecture  XIV.  283 

in  the  Diet  which  forced  the  churchmen  to  be  careful. 
The  loud  growl  was  rising  —  the  voice  of  the  German 
laity  demanding  redress  of  their  grievances  against  ec- 
clesiastical tyranny,  soon  to  rise  into  a  roar  and  break 
the  fabric  of  the  Church  to  pieces.  In  the  face  of 
such  a  demonstration  the  Emperor  could  not  dare,  if 
he  had  wished,  to  listen  to  the  counsels  of  his  spiritual 
advisers. 

It  seemed,  at  any  rate,  but  a  question  of  a  few  days. 
Luther  was  outlawed.  His  own  prince  could  no 
longer  lawfully  protect  him  after  his  safe-conduct  had 
expired.  There  was  no  asylum  in  Christian  Europe 
where  the  Pope's  writ  would  not  run,  or  where  an  ex- 
communicated fugitive  could  seek  protection.  Protes- 
tant nations  there  were  as  yet  none,  and  Luther's 
speedy  destruction  seemed  still  inevitable.  You  know 
what  happened.  How  Luther,  on  his  way  home  to 
Wittenberg,  was  seized  in  a  forest  by  a  company  of 
the  Elector's  horse,  disguised  as  banditti.  How  he 
was  spirited  away  to  the  Castle  of  Wartburg,  and  lay 
concealed  there  till  war  broke  out  between  France  and 
the  Empire,  when  Charles  could  no  longer  afford  to 
affront  or  exasperate  his  German  subjects.  It  is  not 
impossible  that  the  plot  was  arranged  privately  be- 
tween the  Elector  and  the  Emperor,  to  save  Charles 
from  making  himself  hated,  as  he  would  have  been 
had  Luther  been  burnt. 

Meanwhile  the  secret  was  well  kept.  Erasmus 
thought  that  all  was  over  with  him.  Luther's  friends, 
Melanchthon  and  Jonas,  had  stood  gallantly  by  him 
at  Worms.  Erasmus  considered  that  the  best  which 
they  could  now  do  was  to  separate  themselves  from  a 
lost  cause. 


284  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

TO   JODOCUS   JONAS.1 

I 

Louvain,  May  18,  1521. 

In  pleading  for  moderation  at  Worms  you  acted  as 
I  should  have  clone  had  I  been  there.  I  am  sorry  that 
things  have  turned  so  badly.  What  is  religion,  save 
peace  in  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  The  corruption  of  the 
Church,  the  degeneracy  of  the  Holy  See  are  univer- 
sally admitted.  Reform  has  been  loudly  asked  for, 
and  I  doubt  whether  in  the  whole  history  of  Christian- 
ity the  heads  of  the  Church  have  been  so  grossly 
worldly  as  at  the  present  moment.  It  was  on  this  ac- 
count that  Luther's  popularity  at  the  outset  was  so  ex- 
traordinary. We  believe  what  we  wish.  A  man  was 
supposed  to  have  risen  up,  with  no  objects  of  his  own 
to  gain,  to  set  his  hand  to  the  work.  I  had  hopes  my- 
self, though  from  the  first  I  was  alarmed  at  Luther's 
tone.  What  could  have  induced  him  to  rail  as  he  did 
at  popes  and  doctors  and  mendicant  friars  ?  If  all  he 
said  was  true,  what  could  he  expect?  Things  were 
bad  enough  in  themselves  without  making  them  worse. 
Did  he  wish  to  set  the  world  on  fire  ?  This  was  not 
Christ's  way,  or  the  Apostles'  way,  or  Augustine's. 
He  should  have  looked  forward.  It  is  foolish  to  un- 
dertake what  you  cannot  carry  through,  and  doubly 
foolish  when  failure  may  be  disastrous.  Why  did  he 
refuse  to  submit  to  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor  ?  He 
was  ill  advised,  they  say.  But  why  did  he  let  himself 
be  ill  advised  ?  He  had  many  friends  well  disposed 
towards  him,  partly  because  they  thought  he  was  doing 
good,  partly  because  they  had  a  common  enemy.  It 
was  unfair  to  drag  our  names  into  the  controversy. 
Why  have  I  and  Reuchlin  been  mentioned  so  often  ? 
They  have  taken  passages  which  I  wrote  before  Lu- 
ther's movement  was  dreamt  of,  and  have  translated 
them  into  German,  where  I  seem  to  say  what  Luther 
says.  Likely  enough  I  have  insisted  that  vows  should 
not  be  hastily  taken,  that  men  had  better  stay  at  home 

1  Ep.  dlxxii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XIV.  285 

and  take  care  of  their  families,  instead  of  running  off 
to  Compostella  or  Jerusalem.  But  this  is  not  to  say- 
there  should  be  no  vows  and  no  confessional.  It  is 
not  my  fault  if  my  writings  are  misused.  So  were 
Paul's,  if  we  are  to  believe  Peter.  Had  I  known  what 
was  coming,  I  might  have  written  differently  on  some 
points.  But  I  have  done  my  best,  and  at  all  events 
have  not  encouraged  rebellion.  There  was  a  hope  at 
Cologne  that  the  Pope  would  graciously  forgive  and 
Luther  would  graciously  obey,  the  princes  generally 
approving.  But  out  comes  the  "  Babylonish  Captiv- 
ity," and  the  burning  of  the  Decretals,  and  the  wound 
becomes  past  cure.  Luther  has  wilfully  provoked  his 
fate. 

"  The  Lutheran  drama  is  over,"  Erasmus  writes  to 
another  correspondent  a  week  later  (May  24) ; 
"  would  that  it  had  never  been  brought  on  the  stage." 
And  again,  in  June,  to  Archbishop  Warham  :  — 

Luther  has  made  a  prodigious  stir.  Would  that  he 
had  held  his  tongue,  or  had  written  in  a  better  tone. 
I  fear  that  in  shunning  Scylla  we  shall  now  fall  into 
Charybdis.  There  is  some  slight  hope  from  Pope 
Leo  ;  but  if  the  enemies  of  light  are  to  have  their  way, 
we  may  write  on  the  tomb  of  a  ruined  world,  "  Christ 
did  not  rise  again." 

Again,  July  5,1  with  confidential  frankness  to  Dr. 
Pace :  — 

Luther  has  given  himself  away;  and  the  theolo- 
gians, I  fear,  will  make  an  ill  use  of  their  victory. 
The  Louvainers  hate  me,  and  will  find  a  ready  instru- 
ment in  Aleander,  who  is  violent  enough  in  himself, 
and  needs  no  prompting.  lie  lays  the  whole  blame 
on  me.  I  am  responsible  even  for  the  "  Babylonish 
Captivity."  The  Germans  were  always  trying  to  drag 
me  in  ;  but  what  help  could  I  have  given  Luther? 
There  would  have  been  two  lives  for  one.    That  would 

1  Kp.  dlxxxiii.,  abridged, 


286  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

have  been  all.  I  was  not  called  on  to  venture  mine. 
We  have  not  all  strength  for  martyrdom,  and  I  fear 
if  trouble  comes  I  shall  do  like  Peter.  The  Pope 
and  the  Emperor  must  decide.  If  they  decide  wisely, 
I  shall  go  with  them  of  my  own  will.  If  unwisely,  I 
shall  take  the  safe  side.  There  will  be  no  dishonesty 
in  this  when  one  can  do  no  good.  Now  that  Luther 
has  gone  to  ashes,  the  preaching  friars  and  the  divines 
congratulate  each  other,  not,  however,  with  much  sin- 
cerity. We  must  look  to  the  princes  to  see  that  the 
innocent  and  deserving  are  not  made  responsible  for 
Luther's  sins. 

By  the  middle  of  the  summer  confused  rumours 
were  spreading  that  Luther  had  not  gone  to  ashes, 
that  he  had  been  carried  off,  and  some  said  murdered. 
The  real  truth  was  not  guessed  at. 

"  An  idle  tale  "  has  reached  us  (he  wrote,1  July  5) 
that  Luther  has  been  waylaid  and  killed.  All  means 
were  used  at  Worms  to  recover  him.  Threats,  prom- 
ises, entreaties,  but  nothing  could  be  done  with  him. 
He  was  reconducted  to  Wittenberg  by  the  Imperial 
herald,  with  twenty  days  allowed  of  respite.  Then  all 
was  to  end.  The  Emperor  is  incensed  against  him, 
partly  by  others,  partly  through  personal  resentment. 
Luther's  books  were  burnt  at  Worms,  and  a  fierce  edict 
has  been  issued  at  Louvain,  insisting  that  the  Emperor 
shall  be  obeyed. 

Erasmus  was  not,  as  he  said,  called  on  to  be  a 
martyr,  but  he  was  a  little  over-eager  to  wash  his 
hands  of  Luther.  There  was  no  denying  that  his 
writings  generally,  especially  his  New  Testament,  had 
given  the  first  impulse.  It  was  he  who  had  made  the 
Scripture,  to  which  Luther  appealed,  first  accessible 
to  the  laity,  garnished  with  notes  and  commentaries 
as  stinging  as  Luther's  own.     The  Louvain  Carmelites 

1  Ep.  dlxxxiv, 


Lecture  XIV.  287 

owed  liim  a  long  debt,  and  they  thought  their  time 
was  come  to  pay  it.  He  had  gone  to  Bruges  to  escape 
them. 

TO   PETER    BARBIEIUS.1 

Bruges,  August  13,  1521. 
The  Louvain  friars  will  not  be  reconciled  to  me, 
and  they  catch  at  anything,  true  or  false,  to  bring  me 
into  odium.  True,  my  tongue  runs  away  with  me.  I 
jest  too  much,  and  measure  other  men  by  myself. 
Why  should  an  edition  of  the  New  Testament  infuri- 
ate them  so  ?  I  settled  at  Louvain,  as  you  know,  at 
the  Emperor's  order.  We  set  up  our  college  for  the 
three  languages  [Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew].  The 
Carmelites  did  not  like  it,  and  would  have  stopped  us 
had  not  Cardinal  Adrian  interfered.2  I  did  my  best 
with  the  New  Testament,  but  it  provoked  endless 
quarrels.  Edward  Lee  pretended  to  have  discovered 
300  errors.  They  appointed  a  commission,  which 
professed  to  have  found  bushels  of  them.  Every 
dinner-table  ram*  with  the  blunders  of  Erasmus.  I 
required  particulars,  and  could  not  have  them.  At 
length  a  truce  was  patched  up.  They  were  to  admit 
that  my  work  had  merit.  I  was  to  stop  the  wits  who 
were  mocking  at  Louvain  theology.  Then  out  came 
Luther's  business.  It  grew  hot.  I  was  accused  on 
one  side  from  the  pulpits  of  being  in  a  conspiracy 
with  Luther,  on  the  other  I  was  entreated  to  join  him. 
I  saw  the  peril  of  neutrality,  but  I  cannot  and  will  not 
be  a  rebel.  Luther's  friends  quote,  "  I  came  not  to 
send  peace  on  earth,  but  a  sword."  Of  course  the 
Church  requires  reform,  but  violence  is  not  the  way  to 
it.  Both  parties  behaved  like  maniacs.  You  may  ask 
me  why  I  have  not  written  against  Luther.  Because 
I  had  no  leisure,  because  I  was  not  qualified,  because 
I  would  sooner  face  the  lances  of  the  Switzers  than 
the  pens  of  enraged  theologians.  There  are  plenty  to 
do    it   besides    me  —  bishops,    cardinals,    kings,  with 

1  Ep.  dlxxxvii.,  abridged. 

2  Charles  V-'s  tutor,  and  afterwards  Popo. 


288  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

stakes  and  edicts  as  many  as  they  please.  Besides,  it 
is  not  true  that  I  have  done  nothing.  Luther's  friends 
(who  were  once  mine  also)  do  not  think  so.  They 
have  deserted  me  and  call  me  a  Pelagian.  But  if 
severity  is  to  be  the  course,  someone  else,  and  not  I, 
must  use  the  rod.  God  will  provide  a  Nebuchad- 
nezzar to  scourge  us  if  we  need  scourging. 

It  would  be  well  for  us  if  we  thought  less  of  our 
dogmas  and  more  about  the  Gospel ;  but  whatever  is 
done  ought  to  be  done  quietly,  with  no  appeals  to 
passion.  The  opinions  of  the  leading  men  should  be 
given  in  writing  and  under  seal.  The  point  is  to  learn 
the  cause  of  all  these  disturbances,  and  stop  the  stream 
at  the  fountain.  The  princes  must  begin,  and  then  I 
will  try  what  I  can  do.  My  position  at  present  is 
odious.  In  Flanders  I  am  abused  as  a  Lutheran.  In 
Germany  I  am  cried  out  against  as  an  anti- Lutheran. 
I  would  forfeit  life,  fame,  and  all  to  find  a  means  to 
compose  the  strife. 

Once  more  to  Archbishop  Warham,  August  24 :  *  — 

The  condition  of  things  is  extremely  dangerous.  I 
have  to  steer  my  own  course,  so  as  not  to  desert  the 
truth  of  Christ  through  fear  of  man,  and  to  avoid  un- 
necessary risks.  Luther  has  been  sent  into  the  world 
by  the  Genius  of  discord.  Every  corner  of  it  has 
been  disturbed  by  him.  All  admit  that  the  corrup- 
tions of  the  Church  required  a  drastic  medicine.  But 
drugs  wrongly  given  make  the  sick  man  worse.  I 
said  this  to  the  King  of  Denmark  lately.  He  laughed, 
and  answered  that  small  doses  would  be  of  no  use. 
The  whole  system  needed  purging.  For  myself  I  am 
a  man  of  peace,  and  hate  quarrels.  Luther's  move- 
ment was  not  connected  with  learning,  but  it  has 
brought  learning  into  ill-repute,  and  the  lean  and 
barren  dogmatists,  who  used  to  be  my  enemies,  have 
now  fastened  on  Luther,  like  the  Greeks  on  Hector. 
I  suppose  I  must  write  something  about  him.  I  will 
read  his  books,  and  see  what  can  be  done. 

1  Ep.  dxc. 


Lecture  XIV.  289 

There  was  joy  at  Some  and  among  the  Roman 
satellites  over  the  sentence  at  Worms.  For  some 
months  the  Church  was  triumphant.  Wise  men  and 
fools  alike  believed  that  all  was  over  with  Luther. 
The  Emperor,  the  Archduke  of  Austria,  half  the  Ger- 
man princes,  France,  Spain,  even  England,  appeared 
to  have  agreed  that  the  spiritual  insurrection  must  be 
put  down  with  fire.  It  was  not  blind  bigotry.  It  was 
a  conviction  shared,  as  you  will  do  well  to  observe,  by 
such  a  man  as  Sir  Thomas  More,  who  was  as  little  in- 
clined as  Erasmus  himself  to  allow  the  old  creed  to  be 
supplanted  by  a  new.  You  cannot  understand  the 
sixteenth  century  till  you  recognise  the  immense  dif- 
ference then  present  in  the  minds  of  men  between  a 
change  of  doctrine  and  a  reformation  of  the  Church's 
manners  and  morals. 

Luther  was  not  dead,  as  Erasmus  and  the  rest  of 
the  world  believed.  He  had  been  spirited  away  by 
the  Elector  of  Saxony,  probably  enough  with  the 
Emperor's  connivance.  The  public  execution  of  such 
a  man  would  have  shocked  the  sense  of  all  the  laity 
in  Europe.  But  the  meteor  which  had  blazed  across 
the  firmament  was  supposed  to  have  burnt  out,  and 
the  best  hope  of  honest  men  was  that  the  Emperor 
would  now  himself  take  up  the  work,  and  insist  on  a 
.  reform  of  the  Church  by  the  Church  itself.  Unfor- 
tunately other  forces,  besides  religion,  were  disturbing 
the  peace  of  Christendom.  The  Pope  was  the  spirit- 
ual head  of  the  world,  but  he  was  also  an  Italian 
prince,  with  schemes  and  ambitions  like  other  mortals. 
The  traditions  of  Charles  VIII.  and  of  Julius  II. 
were  still  smouldering.  The  Italians  resented  the 
Spanish  occupation  of  Naples  and  Sicily.  The  French 
wanted  Lombardy  and  Piedmont.  Behind  all  was 
Solyman,  ravaging  the  Mediterranean  with  his  fleet, 


290  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

advancing  on  Hungary,  and  threatening  to  place  the 
Crescent  on  the  spire  of  St.  Stephen's  at  Venice.  A 
crusade  against  heresy  required  peace.  Church  courts 
and  inquisitions  were  abhorred  by  the  secular  mind, 
and  councils  could  not  sit  while  armies  were  on  the 
move.  The  young  Emperor  Charles  and  the  young 
Francis  I.  showed  both  of  them  that  they  meant  to 
try  which  was  stronger  before  other  questions  could 
be  attended  to;  and  Providence,  or  accident,  or  the 
ambitions  and  passions  of  mankind,  were  preparing 
thus  a  respite  for  spiritual  freedom  till  it  could  take 
root  and  be  too  strong  to  be  destroyed. 

The  politics  of  Europe  do  not  concern  us  here.  We 
must  continue  to  look  through  the  eyes  of  Erasmus  at 
events  as  they  rose,  with  the  future  course  of  things 
concealed  from  him.  This  is  the  way  to  understand 
history.  We  know  what  happened,  and  we  judge  the 
actors  on  the  stage  by  the  light  of  it.  They  did  not 
know.  They  had  to  play  their  parts  in  the  present, 
and  so  we  misjudge  them  always.  The  experience  of 
every  one  of  us  whose  lives  reach  a  normal  period 
might  have  taught  us  better.  Let  any  man  of  seventy 
look  back  over  what  he  has  witnessed  in  his  own  time. 
Let  him  remember  what  was  hoped  for  from  political 
changes  or  wars,  or  from  each  step  in  his  personal 
life,  and  compare  what  has  really  resulted  from  those 
things  with  what  he  once  expected ;  how,  when  good 
has  come,  it  has  not  been  the  good  which  he  looked 
for  ;  how  difficulties  have  shown  themselves  which  no 
one  foresaw ;  how  his  calculations  have  been  mocked 
by  incidents  which  the  wisest  never  dreamt  of ;  and 
he  will  plead  to  be  judged,  if  his  conduct  comes  under 
historical  review,  by  his  intentions  and  not  by  the 
event. 

This  is  a  lesson   which  historians  ought  never  to 


Lecture  XIV.  291 

forget,  and  they  seem  to  me  rarely  to  remember  it. 
To  understand  the  past  we  must  look  at  it  always, 
when  we  can,  through  the  eyes  of  contemporaries. 

After  the  supposed  collapse  of  Luther,  Erasmus  had 
to  gather  himself  together  to  consider  what  he  should 
himself  do,  and  advise  his  own  party  to  do.  He  had 
gone  to  Bruges  again  to  escape  Louvain  and  its  doc- 
tors. From  Bruges  he  went  to  Anderlac  for  the  rest 
of  the  summer,  and  among  his  letters  from  Anderlac 
is  one  to  a  literary  youth,  who  wished  to  throw  him- 
self into  the  war  of  creeds. 

TO   JOHN   SCHUDELIN.1 

Anderlac,  September  4,  1521. 
Stick  to  your  teaching  work.  Do  not  be  crossing 
swords  with  the  champions  of  the  old  ignorance.  Try 
rather  to  sow  better  seed  in  the  minds  of  the  young. 
If  princes  are  blind,  if  the  heads  of  the  Church  prefer 
the  rewards  of  this  world  to  the  rewards  promised  by 
Christ,  if  divines  and  monks  choose  to  stick  to  their 
synagogues,  if  the  world  generally  chooses  to  preserve 
the  forms  to  which  men  are  accustomed,  well,  then, 
we  must  put  new  wine  in  old  bottles.  The  seed  will 
grow  in  the  end,  and  the  opposition  is  more  from  ig- 
norance than  ill-will.  Teach  your  boys  carefully,  edit 
the  writings  of  the  Fathers,  and  irreligious  religion 
and  unlearned  learning  will  pass  away  in  due  time. 

Erasmus  could  be  calm  for  others.  It  was  very 
hard  for  him  to  be  calm  for  himself.  The  Louvainers 
got  hold  of  more  of  his  letters,  and  published  them 
with  alterations  in  the  text.  He  had  written  "  Lu- 
therus  "  ;  they  changed  it  into  "  Lutherus  Noster," 
to  make  him  out  Luther's  friend.  They  reprinted 
his  "  Colloquies,"  imitated  his  style,  and  made  him 
say  the  contradictory  of  what  he  had  really  said.     He 

1  Ep.  dxcii. 


292  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

had  denounced  extorted  confessions,  he  had  laughed 
at  pilgrimages  and  ridiculed  indulgences.  His  new 
editors  reproduced  his  real  language,  but  they  at- 
tached paragraphs  in  his  name  where  he  was  repre- 
sented as  declaring  that  he  had  once  thought  all  that, 
but  had  perceived  his  error.  He  had  written  that 
"the  best  confession  was  confession  to  God  "  ;  his  edi- 
tor changed  it  into  "  the  best  confession  is  confession 
to  a  priest." 

"Wonderful  Atlases  of  a  tottering  faith,"  he 
might  well  call  such  people.  "  Once,"  he  says,  "  it 
was  held  a  crime  to  publish  anything  in  another  man's 
name  ;  now  it  is  the  special  game  of  divines,  and  they 
are  proud  of  it." 

At  Anderlac  he  was  safe  at  any  rate  from  the 
sound  of  their  tongues  while  he  watched  the  gather- 
ing of  the  war  storm.  He  hated  war,  but  under  the 
circumstances  even  war  might  have  its  value.  Per- 
secution, at  least,  would  be  impossible  as  long  as  it 
lasted. 

But  oh,  what  a  world !  (he  wrote).  Christendom 
split  in  two  and  committed  to  a  deadly  struggle ;  two 
young  princes,  each  fierce  and  ardent,  each  bent  on 
the  destruction  of  the  other.  Immortal  God !  Where 
is  the  Pope  ?  When  anything  is  to  be  got  for  the 
Church  he  can  command  angels  and  devils,  but  he  can 
do  nothing  to  prevent  his  children  from  cutting  each 
other's  throats.  Where  are  the  eloquent  preachers  ? 
Have  they  lost  their  tongues,  or  can  they  only  use 
them  to  flatter  ?  Luther  is  done  with  —  I  trust  well 
done  with ;  and  for  my  own  part  I  return  to  my 
studies. 

Luther  was  not  done  with.  Luther  had  risen  from 
the  dead,  or,  rather,  the  truth  came  out,  while  Eras- 
mus was  still  at  Anderlac,  that  he  had  never  died  at 


Lecture  XIV.  293 

all,  that  he  was  alive  under  the  Elector's  protection, 
and  would  soon  be  heard  of  again  under  the  shelter 
of  the  war.  Violence  had  failed  after  all.  There 
was  nothing  now  for  it  but  for  Erasmus  to  step  for- 
ward and  put  Luther  down  by  argument.  Statesmen, 
bishops,  privy  councillors,  even  friends  like  Lord 
Mountjoy  in  England,  wrote  to  him  that  he  must 
do  it.  Erasmus  must  speak.  Germany  would  listen 
to  Erasmus  when  it  would  listen  to  no  one  else.  He 
did  not  choose  to  be  at  once  used  and  abused. 

TO   THE   SECRETARY   OF  THE   PRINCE   OF  NASSAU.1 

Anderlac,  November  19, 1521. 

I  have  no  more  to  do  with  Luther  than  with  any 
other  Christian.  I  would  sooner  have  him  mended 
than  ended ;  but  if  he  has  been  sowing  poison,  the 
hand  that  sowed  it  must  gather  it  up  again.  They 
may  boil  or  roast  Luther  if  they  like.  It  will  be  but 
one  individual  the  less ;  but  mankind  must  be  consid- 
ered too.  The  papal  party  have  acted  like  fools. 
The  whole  affair  has  been  mismanaged  by  a  parcel  of 
stupid  monks.  The  Pope's  Bull  directed  them  to 
preach  against  Luther,  that  is,  to  answer  him  out  of 
Scripture.  They  have  not  answered  him.  They  have 
only  cursed  him  and  lied  about  him.  A  Jacobite  at 
Antwerp  accused  him  of  having  said  that  Christ  worked 
His  miracles  by  magic.  A  Carmelite  said  at  the  French 
Court  that  Luther  was  Antichrist,  and  Erasmus  his 
precursor.  A  Minorite  raged  at  us  from  a  pulpit  for 
an  hour,  only  to  call  us  geese,  asses,  beasts,  and  block- 
heads. The  magistrates  at  Antwerp  told  him  to  leave 
Luther  and  preach  the  Gospel.  Another  Minorite, 
named  Matthias,  said  that  if  the  people  wanted  the 
Gospel  they  must  take  it  from  their  pastor,  though  he 
had  slept  the  night  before  with  a  harlot.  The  Em- 
peror must  take  order  for  the  peace  of  Christendom 
and  silence  both  parties.    Would  that  all  were  well 

1  Ep.  cccxiv.,  second  series,  abridged. 


294  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

ended.  No  one  would  believe  how  widely  Lntlier  lias 
moved  men.  His  books  are  everywhere  and  in  every 
language.  I  hear  there  is  to  be  some  frightful  edict. 
I  hope  it  may  prosper,  but  things  will  not  go  as  many 
seem  to  expect.  I  care  nothing  what  is  done  to  Lu- 
ther, but  I  care  for  peace,  and,  as  you  know,  when 
peace  is  broken  the  worst  men  come  to  the  front.  I 
had  rather  be  a  Turk  than  under  some  of  these  friars. 
If  the  Pope  and  princes  are  wise,  they  will  not  place 
good  men  at  the  mercy  of  such  as  they  are. 


LECTURE  XV. 

Europe  was  at  pause,  waiting  for  the  outbreak  of 
the  war.  Luther  was  known  to  be  alive,  but  had  not 
yet  shown  himself.  The  cry  was  still  that  Erasmus 
must  write.  Erasmus  must  tell  Germany  how  to  act. 
Even  his  English  friends,  who  had  stood  by  him  so 
heartily  in  his  fight  with  the  monks,  were  urging  him  to 
clear  himself  of  complicity  with  the  rebellion  against 
Rome.  Lord  Mountjoy,  his  oldest  patron  and  sup- 
porter, had  written  to  him,  and  Mountjoy  spoke  for 
More,  and  Fisher  and  Warham.  Erasmus  began  to 
feel  that  he  might  be  obliged  to  comply. 

TO   LORD  MOUNTJOY.1 

Andeklac. 

You,  too,  tell  me  I  am  suspected  of  favouring  Lu- 
ther, and  that  I  must  prove  my  innocence  by  writing 
against  him.  I  had  nothing  to  do  with  Luther.  I 
objected  only  to  the  outcry  against  him.  All  allow 
that  Church  discipline  had  gone  to  pieces,  that  the 
laity  were  oppressed,  and  their  consciences  entangled 
in  trickery.  Men  both  good  and  learned  thought  Lu- 
ther might  help  to  mend  something  of  this.  I  looked 
for  no  more.  I  never  thought  of  quarrelling  with  the 
ruling  powers.  If  the  course  they  take  is  for  Christ's 
honour,  I  obey  gladly.  If  they  decide  ill,  we  must  en- 
dure what  is  not  directly  impious.  When  we  can  do 
no  good,  we  have  a  right  to  be  silent.  A  worm  like 
me  must  not  dispute  with  our  lawful  rulers.  If  they 
ask  my  advice,  I  will  give  it.     Such  an  uproar  is  not 

1  Ep.  devi.,  abridged. 


29G  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

for  nothing,  and  they  may  wish  to  cleanse  the  wound 
before  they  close  it.  If  they  do  not,  I  shall  hold  my 
peace,  and  pray  Christ  to  enlighten  them.  You  say  I 
can  settle  it  all.  Would  that  I  could.  It  is  easy  to 
call  Luther  a  fungus :  it  is  not  easy  to  answer  him.  I 
might  try,  if  I  was  sure  that  those  at  the  head  of 
things  would  use  my  victory  to  honest  purpose.  I  do 
not  see  what  business  it  is  of  mine.  However,  I  will 
think  of  it. 

"  I  will  think  of  it  " —  so  he  had  said  before.  But 
the  more  he  thought  the  less  he  saw  his  way.  He 
was  afraid,  as  he  had  admitted,  that  he  might  be 
fighting  against  the  Spirit  of  God.  He  explains  his 
difficulties  in  an  elaborate  letter  to  the  Archbishop  of 
Palermo.1  In  the  eyes  of  Erasmus  the  disorders  of 
Christendom  had  risen  from  the  dogmas  which  the 
Church  and  the  priests  had  forced  upon  the  people. 
Piety  was  held  to  be  the  acceptance  of  these  dogmas, 
impiety  to  be  doubt  or  disagreement.  Hence  had 
come  the  inevitable  consequences :  religion  was  con- 
founded with  ritual  or  creed,  and  morals  were  forgot- 
ten or  went  to  ruin.  Erasmus  enters  at  length  into 
the  history  of  heresy  and  the  early  disputes  on  the 
Trinity,  which  he  deprecated  and  condemned.  It  is 
very  dangerous,  he  says,  to  define  subjects  above 
human  comprehension.  There  was  an  excuse  for  the 
early  Fathers,  as  they  could  not  help  themselves. 
But  nothing  was  to  be  said  in  defence  of  the  curious 
and  blasphemous  questions  now  raised,  on  which  men 
might  be  left  to  think  for  themselves  without  hurt  to 
their  souls.  "  May  not  a  man,"  he  asks,  "  be  a  Chris- 
tian who  cannot  explain  philosophically  how  the  nativ- 
ity of  the  Son  differs  from  the  procession  of  the  Holy 
Spirit?     If  I  believe  in  the  Trinity  in  Unity,  I  want 

1  January  5,  1522.  (  Ep.  dcxiii. 


Lecture  XV.  297 

no  arguments.  If  I  do  not  believe,  I  shall  not  be  con- 
vinced by  reason.  The  sum  of  religion  is  peace,  which 
can  only  be  when  definitions  are  as  few  as  possible, 
and  opinion  is  left  free  on  many  subjects.1  Our  pres- 
ent problems  are  said  to  be  waiting  for  the  next 
(Ecumenical  Council.  Better  let  them  wait  till  the 
veil  is  removed  and  we  see  God  face  to  face." 

The  whole  of  Erasmus's  thought  is  in  these  words, 
and  they  explain  his  difference  with  Luther,  who  was 
constructing  a  new  Protestant  theology,  which  might 
be  as  intolerant  and  dangerous  as  the  Catholic.  We 
can  well  understand  why,  if  this  was  his  view  of 
things,  he  was  so  unwilling  to  publish  it  to  the  world. 
His  uncertainty  irritated  him,  and  irritation  in  Eras- 
mus always  ran  over  into  mockery.  When  things 
were  at  the  worst  with  him,  he  wrote  a  characteristic 
letter  of  advice  to  a  friend  who  had  been  attached  to 
the  Emperor's  Court. 

Be  careful  to  keep  sober  at  meals.  This  will  ensure 
your  espect.  Assume  no  airs  either  in  speech  or  dress. 
The  Court  soon  finds  out  what  men  are.  When  you 
argue  do  not  dispute  like  the  schoolmen,  and  do  not 
argue  at  all  with  casual  persons,  or  on  any  subject 
which  turns  up.  You  will  then  be  better  liked  and 
escape  annoyance.  Cultivate  men  in  power.  Be 
polite  to  all,  and  never  abject.  Respect  your  own 
position  —  an  affectation  of  holiness  will  not  be  amiss. 
Never  speak  your  mind  openly  about  what  goes  on 
round  you.  Never  blurt  out  your  thoughts  hastily. 
Be  fair  to  everyone,  and  if  you  must  take  a  side,  take 
the  side  which  is  most  in  favour.  Keep  clear  of 
Lutheranism  and  stand  up  for  knowledge  and  learn- 

1  "  Ea  vix  constare  potorit  nisi  de  quam  potest  paucissimis  dofinianms 
et  in  multis  liberum  rclinqiiaimis strain  cuiqiii'  judicium,  propterea  qinxl 
ingens  sit  rerum  pliirimaruni  iiltscuiit.is  el  hocmorbl  fere  innatum  sit 
hominmn  inpeniis  ut  cedere  nesciant  simul  atqne  res  in  oontentionexn 
vocata  e3t,"  etc. 


298  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

ing.  Egnioncl  and  Co.  hate  both  worse  than  they 
hate  Luther.  This  will  make  you  popular  with  the 
young.     The  present  tempest  will  not  last  long. 

Louvain,  as  a  residence,  has  become  intolerable. 
He  has  gone  thither  at  the  Emperor's  command.  The 
divinity  and  the  climate  alike  disagreed  with  him,  and 
on  leaving  Anderlac  he  was  allowed  to  remove  alto- 
gether to  Bale,  where  he  could  print  his  books  with 
his  friend  Froben.  The  bitter  humour  of  the  last 
letter  continued  to  cling  to  him.  Another  friend 
had  been  summoned  into  the  Imperial  circle.  He 
writes : 1  — 

You  tell  me  that  you  are  going  into  court  life,  and 
that  you  do  not  like  it.  I  trust  it  may  be  for  your 
good.  Up  to  the  time  when  I  was  fifty  I  saw  some- 
thing of  princes'  courts,  so  you  may  profit  by  my  expe- 
rience. Trust  no  one  who  pretends  to  be  your  friend, 
let  him  smile,  promise,  embrace,  swear  as  many  oaths 
as  he  will.  Do  not  believe  that  anyone  is  really  at- 
tached to  you,  and  do  not  be  hasty  in  giving  your 
own  confidence.  Be  civil  to  all.  Politeness  costs 
nothing.  Salute,  give  the  road,  and  do  not  forget  to 
give  men  their  titles.  Praise  warmly,  promise  freely. 
Choose  the  part  which  you  mean  to  play,  and  never 
betray  your  real  feelings.  Fit  your  features  to  your 
words,  and  your  words  to  your  features.  This  is  the 
philosophy  of  court  life,  for  which  none  are  qualified 
till  they  have  put  away  shame  and  trained  themselves 
to  lie.  Watch  how  parties  are  divided  and  join 
neither.  If  man  or  woman  falls  out  of  favour,  keep 
you  to  the  sunny  side  of  the  ship.  Observe  the 
prince's  likes  and  dislikes.  Smile  when  he  speaks, 
and  if  you  can  say  nothing,  look  admiringly.  Praise 
him  to  others.  Your  words  will  get  round.  A  small 
offering  to  him  now  and  then  will  do  no  harm,  only  it 
must  not  be  too  valuable,  as  if  you  were  fishing  for  a 

1  Ep.  dx.,  second  series. 


Lecture  XV.  299 

return.  If  there  be  game  in  sight,  trust  neither  to 
God  nor  man,  but  look  out  for  yourself.  Court  winds 
are  changeable.  Watch  your  chances,  and  let  no 
good  thing  slip  out  of  your  hands.  Keep  with  the 
winning  party,  but  give  no  mortal  offence  to  the  other 
till  you  are  sure  of  your  ground.  When  you  ask  a 
favour,  do  as  loose  women  do  with  their  lovers,  ask 
for  what  the  prince  can  give  without  loss  to  himself 
—  benefices,  provostships,  and  such  like.  This  will 
do  to  begin  with.  As  I  see  you  benefit  by  my  advice, 
I  will  initiate  you  in  the  deeper  mysteries. 

At  all  times,  I  suppose,  court  atmosphere  is  apt  to 
breed  a  halo  round  the  sun.  We  have  to  pay  for  the 
luxury  of  a  monarchy,  and  this  was  why  Erasmus 
always,  for  himself,  kept  clear  of  those  high  regions. 
The  scorn,  however,  may  be  set  down  to  a  specially 
uncomfortable  state  of  mind.  Must  he  write?  If 
there  was  no  escape,  what  was  he  to  write?  The 
names  of  Luther  and  Erasmus  were  about  to  be 
coupled  closer  than  ever  by  their  joint  service  to 
mankind.  Erasmus  had  edited  the  Greek  New  Tes- 
tament and  made  a  fresh  translation.  Luther,  in  the 
Castle  of  Wartburg,  was  translating  it  into  vernacu- 
lar German,  with  the  Old  Testament  to  follow.  To- 
gether, these  two  men  had  made  accessible  the  rock, 
stronger  than  the  rock  of  Peter,  on  which  the  faith  of 
mankind  was  to  be  rebuilt.  Less  than  ever  could 
Erasmus  tell  how  to  act.  At  this  moment  Leo  X. 
died,  and  the  Emperor's  tutor,  Erasmus's  old  school- 
fellow, Cardinal  Adrian,  was  called  to  be  the 
Church's  sovereign.  The  rule  of  the  Conclave  was  to 
choose  only  Italian  Popes.  That  it  was  broken  at 
the  present  crisis  was  due  to  the  resolution  of  Charles 
V.  to  clear  out  the  abominations  of  the  Roman  Court. 
But  there  was  no  likelihood  of  finding  in  Adrian  any 
disposition  to  compromise  with  heresy.     Erasmus,  at 


300  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

their  last  meeting,  had  found  him  sour  and  cold,  a 
severe,  stern,  and  strictly  orthodox  old  man,  not  even 
disposed  to  continue  to  himself  the  favour  which  he 
had  always  found  from  Leo.  Erasmus  had  now  left 
Louvain  and  its  doctors,  and  was  living  at  Bale  with 
his  publisher  Froben.  From  Bale,  as  soon  as  he  was 
settled  there,  he  wrote  to  Pirkheimer,  still  in  a  bitter 
tone  :  — 

I  have  been  ill,  but  am  better.  I  watch  earnestly 
how  the  Lutheran  tragedy  is  to  end.  Some  spirit  is 
in  it,  but  whether  God's  Spirit  or  the  other  one  I 
know  not.  I  never  helped  Luther,  unless  it  be  to 
help  a  man  to  exhort  him  to  mend  his  ways ;  yet  I 
am  called  a  heretic  by  both  parties.  My  ill  friends, 
who  dislike  me  on  other  grounds,  persuade  the  Em- 
peror that  I  am  the  cause  of  all  that  is  wrong,  be- 
cause I  do  not  write  against  Luther.  The  Lutherans 
call  me  a  Pelagian  because  I  believe  in  free  will.  A 
pleasant  situation,  is  it  not? 

In  the  pause  we  find  Erasmus  studying  his  old 
friend  Lucian  over  again.  Lucian  had  more  to  say  to 
him  which  fitted  to  the  time  than  even  the  Christian 
Fathers.  The  enormous  fabric  of  false  legends  and 
forged  miracles  with  which  the  monks  had  cajoled  or 
frightened  their  flocks  had  brought  back  to  him  the 
curious  dialogue  called  ^iXo^euS^s,  in  which  Lucian 
had  moralised  over  the  fondness  of  mankind  for  lies 
—  lies  related,  as  Lucian  says,  so  circumstantially  and 
by  such  grave  authorities,  with  evidence  of  eye-wit- 
nesses, place,  and  time  all  accurately  given,  that  the 
strongest  mind  could  hardly  resist  conviction  unless 
fortified  with  the  certainty  that  such  things  could  not 
be.  Erasmus  turns  to  the  familiar  page,  and  finds 
the  same  phenomena  repeated  after  twelve  hundred 
years. 


Lecture  XV.  301 

This  dialogue  (he  says1)  teaches  us  the  folly  of 
superstition,  which  creeps  in  under  the  name  of  reli- 
gion. When  lies  are  told  us  Lucian  bids  us  not  dis- 
turb ourselves,  however  complete  the  authority  which 
may  be  produced  for  them.  Even  Augustine,  an  hon- 
est man  and  a  lover  of  truth,  can  repeat  a  tale  as 
authentic  which  Lucian  had  ridiculed  under  other 
names  so  many  years  before  Augustine  was  born. 
What  wonder,  therefore,  that  fools  can  be  found  to 
listen  to  the  legends  of  the  saints  or  to  stories  about 
hell,  such  as  frighten  cowards  or  old  women.  There  is 
not  a  martyr,  there  is  not  a  virgin,  whose  biographies 
have  not  been  disfigured  by  these  monstrous  absurdi- 
ties. Augustine  says  that  lies  when  exposed  always 
injure  truths  One  might  fancy  they  were  invented 
by  knaves  or  unbelievers  to  destroy  the  credibility  of 
Christianity  itself. 

In  the  same  mood  is  a  letter  to  Pirkheimer,2  evi- 
dently intended  for  the  Emperor's  eyes.  Adrian  is 
now  Pope. 

The  Pope's  satellites  daily  draw  the  meshes  tighter 
of  the  old  tyranny.  Instead  of  relaxing  the  bonds, 
they  tie  the  knots  harder.  The  friends  of  liberty  who 
call  themselves  Lutherans  are  possessed  by  some 
spirit,  of  what  kind  I  know  not,  while  both  sorts  have 
a  finger  in  the  management  of  things,  which  neither 
of  them  should  touch  if  I  could  have  my  way.  Con- 
science has  run  wild ;  abandoned  profligates  quote 
Luther's  books  as  an  excuse  for  licentiousness,  while 
the  quiet  and  the  good  are  between  the  shrine  and  the 
stone.  On  one  side  they  see  reason  and  good  sense, 
on  the  other  the  princes  and  the  mob  ;  and  what  the 
issue  is  to  be  I  know  not.  I  have  small  belief  in  sub- 
mission extorted  by  Bulls  and  Imperial  edicts.  They 
may  chain  the  tongues  of  men  :  they  cannot  touch  theil 
minds.     Would  that  God  would  move  the  princes  to 

1  Ep.  cccclxxv.,  second  series,  abridged. 

2  Ep.  dcxviii.,  abridged. 


302  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

set  other  respects  aside,  consider  only  Christ's  glory, 
and  look  to  the  sources  of  the  disorders  which  con- 
vulse the  commonwealth.  Some  effort  must  and  will 
be  made  for  Christian  liberty.  New  customs,  new 
rules  have  been  introduced  into  the  Church,  which 
have  acquired  the  force  of  law.  The  schoolmen  will 
have  their  dogmas  received  as  articles  of  faith."  The 
spiritual  pedlars  who  trade  under  the  Pope's  shadow 
have  become  insolent  and  grasping.  They  cannot  be 
torn  out  all  at  once  by  force.  Violent  remedies  are 
mischievous  and  dangerous.  But  what  can  be  done  ? 
On  one  side  we  have  Bulls,  edicts,  and  menaces;  on 
the  other  revolutionary  pamphlets  which  set  the  world 
in  flames.  If  the  princes'  hands  are  full  of  other 
business,  can  they  find  no  reasonable  men  whom  they 
can  trust  to  consider  these  things  ?  It  does  not  con- 
cern me.  My  time  is  nearly  out.  But  I  wish  for  the 
salvation  of  Christianity.  If  there  was  any  right 
belief  in  Christ  as  the  Eternal  Head  of  the  Church ! 
But  now  one  man  is  thinking  what  he  can  get,  another 
is  afraid  of  losing  what  he  has,  a  third  sees  trouble 
coming  and  shrinks  into  his  hole,  and  so  the  confla- 
gration spreads.  I  myself  am  denounced  as  a  Lu- 
theran. The  Nuncio  (Aleander)  is  poisoned  against 
me,  and  if  the  late  Pope  had  not  died  I  was  to  have 
been  censured  at  Borne ;  and  meanwhile  the  Lutherans 
abuse  me,  and  the  Emperor  is  half  persuaded  that  I 
am  to  blame  for  everything  that  has  gone  wrong.  I 
had  thought  of  writing  something,  not  as  an  attack  on 
Luther,  but  to  urge  peace  and  moderation.  Both 
sides,  however,  are  so  embittered  that  I  had  better  not 
attempt  it.  If  the  Lutherans  would  but  have  fallen 
out  with  me  two  years  ago  they  would  have  saved  me 
a  load  of  odium.  Learned  theologians  whom  I  have 
consulted  as  to  my  remarks  on  the  ninth  of  Romans 
tell  me  my  fault  is  that  I  have  attached  the  faintest 
possible  power  to  man's  free-will ! 

There  were  more  hopes  from  Adrian  than  Erasmus 
had  allowed  himself  to  feel.     He  learnt  from  distin- 


Lecture  XV.  303 

guished  correspondents  that  the  new  Pope  and  the 
Emperor  did  mean  after  all  to  set  their  hands  to  the 
reform  of  the  Roman  Curia.  He  learnt  too,  to  his 
relief,  that  he  was  himself  less  out  of  favour  than 
he  had  feared  in  those  high  quarters,  bitter  as  was 
the  offence  which  he  had  given  by  not  providing  the 
answer  to  Luther.  At  the  bottom  Charles  V.  thought 
much  as  Erasmus  did  about  dogmas  and  dogmatism. 
The  Emperor  had  resented  Luther's  defiance  of  au- 
thority, but  when  Luther  was  known  to  be  alive  he 
had  taken  no  steps  to  find  or  arrest  him.  The  ap- 
proaching war  with  France  obliged  him  to  keep  on 
good  terms  with  his  German  subjects,  especially  with 
the  most  powerful  of  them,  Luther's  own  sovereign, 
the  Elector  of  Saxony,  and  if  fire  and  sword  were  to 
be  used  for  heresy  a  more  convenient  season  must 
be  waited  for.  The  Bishop  of  Palencia,  who  had  de- 
fended Erasmus  to  the  Emperor,  wrote  him  a  letter 
which  restored  his  spirits.  With  Charles  and  Adrian 
working  together  at  Roman  reform  all  might  yet  go 
well.  He  thanked  the  Bishop  for  his  support.1  He 
hoped  that  "  the  wisdom  of  the  new  Pope  and  the  al- 
most divine  mind  of  Caesar  might  find  a  way  to  extir- 
pate the  disease.  The  roots,  however,"  he  said,  "  must 
be  cut  out  effectually,  or  they  would  shoot  again." 
One  of  these  roots  was  the  tyranny  and  avarice  of 
the  Roman  Court.  The  Pope  and  the  Emperor  to- 
gether might  set  all  right  without  a  revolution.  lie 
himself,  though  he  was  nobody,  was  willing  to  contri- 
bute his  part. 

They  call  me  a  Lutheran  (he  writes  the  same  day 
to  another  friend2).  Had  I  but  held  out  a  little 
finger  to   Luther,   Germany  would  have    seen    what 

i  Bale  April  21,  1522.    Ep.  dcm. 
2  Luclovico  Coronello,  Ej).  dcxxii. 


\, 


304  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

I  could  do.  But  I  would  rather  die  ten  times  over 
than  make  a  schism.  I  have  acted  honestly  through- 
out. Germany  knows  it  now,  and  I  will  make  all  men 
know  it. 

Again,  to  the  President  of  the  Senate  at  Mech- 
lin : x  —  9~ 

July  14,  1502. 

Egmond  may  hate  me,  but  I  have  kept  many  per- 
sons from  joining  Luther,  and  my  announcement  that 
I  mean  to  stand  by  the  Pope  has  been  an  obstacle  in 
Luther's  way.  Had  I  joined  him  there  would  have 
been  princes  enough  to  protect  me  ;  nor  is  the  love  of 
the  people  for  Luther  as  dead  as  some  fancy.  Here 
at  Bale  we  have  a  hundred  thousand  men  who  detest 
Rome,  and  are  Luther's  friends.  I  have  been  hardly 
dealt  with.  I  have  lost  the  confidence  of  Germany. 
The  reactionaries  abuse  the  victory  for  which  they  owe 
after  all  to  me,  and  call  me  a  heretic.  The  Emperor, 
however,  the  Archbishop  of  Palermo,  the  Bishop  of  Pa- 
lencia,  the  Chancellor  of  the  Empire,  the  Cardinals  of 
Sedan  and  Mentz  know  their  obligations  to  me,  and 
are  grateful.  The  Cardinal  of  Sedan  offers  me  a 
handsome  income  if  I  will  reside  at  Rome.  Is  it  not 
preposterous  that,  hated  as  I  am  by  the  Lutherans  and 
possessing  the  confidence  of  the  greatest  men  in  Chris- 
tendom, I  should  be  torn  to  pieces  by  a  wretched  little 
Carmelite?  There  are  thousands  in  the  world  who 
have  no  ill-will  towards  Erasmus.  I  can  make  noise 
enough  if  I  please. 

Encouraged  by  the  knowledge  that  he  was  in  bet- 
ter favour,  Erasmus  had  written  at  length  to  the 
Pope,  giving  his  own  views  of  what  should  be  done. 
The  Pope  sent  no  answer,  and  the  Dominicans  at 
Rome  reported  that  the  letter  had  been  ill  received. 
The  more  moderate  of  the  German  princes,  however, 
began  to  consult  him,  in  a  tone  which  showed  that  his 

1  Ep.  dcxxix.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XV.  305 

pretensions  to  influence  were  not  an  idle  boast. 
Among  the  rest  Duke  George  of  Saxony,  who  had  no 
love  for  Luther,  but  less  for  monks  and  bishops,  had 
written  to  Erasmus  to  urge  him  to  exert  himself.  He 
replies :  — 

TO   DUKE   GEORGE.1 

No  wonder  you  are  displeased  at  the  aspect  of 
things.  None  can  deny  that  Luther  had  an  excellent 
cause.  Christ  had  almost  disappeared,  and  when 
Luther  began  he  had  the  world  at  his  back.  He  was 
imprudent  afterwards,  but  his  disciples  were  more  in 
fault  than  he.  The  fury  is  now  so  great  that  I  fear 
the  victors  will  exact  terms  which  none  who  love 
Christ  will  endure,  and  which  will  destroy  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  You  are  a  wise  prince,  and  I  will  speak 
my  mind  freely.  Christendom  was  being  asphyxiated 
with  formulas  and  human  inventions.  Nothing  was 
heard  of  but  dispensations,  indulgences,  and  the 
powers  of  the  Pope.  The  administration  was  carried 
on  by  men  who,  like  Demas,  loved  the  life  that  now 
is.  Men  needed  waking.  The  Gospel  light  had  to  be 
rekindled.  Would  that  more  wisdom  had  been  shown 
when  the  moment  came.  Stupid  monks  and  sottish 
divines  filled  the  air  with  outcries,  and  made  bad 
worse.  Nothing  was  in  danger  but  the  indulgences ; 
but  they  replied  in  language  disgraceful  to  Christian 
men.  They  would  not  admit  that  Luther  was  right, 
and  only  cursed. 

Seeing  how  the  stream  was  running,  I  kept  out  of 
it,  merely  showing  that  I  did  not  wholly  go  with  Lu- 
ther. They  wanted  me  to  answer.  I  had  thought 
from  the  first  that  the  best  answer  would  be  silence. 
The  wisest  men,  cardinals  and  others,  agreed  with  me. 
The  Pope's  furious  Bull  only  made  the  flame  burn 
hotter.  The  Emperor  followed  with  an  equally  savage 
edict.  Edicts  cannot  alter  minds.  We  may  approve 
the  Emperor's  piety,  but  those  who  advised  that  mea- 
sure were  not  his  best  councillors.     The  King  of  Eng- 

1  Ep.  dexxxv.,  abridged. 


306  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

laud's  book1  was  justly  admired  by  you.  It  was,  no 
doubt,  his  own  composition.  He  lias  fine  talents,  and 
lie  studied  style  as  a  boy.  A  few  years  since  he  wrote 
a  tract,  "  An  Laicus  obligaretur  ad  vocalem  Oratio- 
nem?"  He  has  studied  theology,  and  often  speaks 
about  it.  Your  Highness  sends  me  two  books  of  Lu- 
ther's, which  you  wish  me  to  answer.  I  cannot  read 
the  language  in  which  they  are  written.  It  might  be 
useful  to  admonish  prelates  of  their  duties.  There 
are  always  bishops  who  love  their  dignities  so  well 
that  they  forget  all  else.  But  the  mischief  has  grown 
from  worldly  men,  who  have  despotised  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  and,  instead  of  being  respected  as  fathers,  are 
abhorred  as  tyrants. 

It  was  rumoured  that  Charles  meant  to  try  force 
after  all.  Erasmus  warned  the  Duke  of  the  inevitable 
consequences. 

The  Carmelites  will  hear  of  nothing  but  severity. 
Let  them  try  it  if  they  will.  The  abhorrence  of  the 
monks  and  of  the  Roman  See  has  gained  Luther  so 
much  favour  with  people,  princes,  and  nobles,  that  if 
violence  is  used  200,000  men  need  only  a  leader  to 
rise  and  defend  him.  They  have  an  honest  pretext. 
They  have  their  own  wrongs  to  avenge,  and  like 
enough  may  have  an  eye  to  churchmen's  lands  and 
goods. 

Adrian  VI.  now  comes  upon  the  scene.  Adrian's 
life  had  lain  apart  from  Rome.  He  had  been  the 
Emperor's  tutor.  He  had  been  Regent  in  Spain 
during  Charles's  minority,  and  with  Rome  itself  he 
had  personally  been  little  connected.  He  had  accepted 
the  Papacy  with  an  honest  intention  of  examining  into 
the  charges  of  simony,  corruption,  and  profligacy  in 
the  Roman  Court  with  which  the  world  was  ringing. 
He   had    himself  seen  little  of  it.     He,  perhaps,  be- 

1  Henry  VIII. 's  answer  to  Luther,  which  brought  him  from  a  grate- 
ful Pope  the  title  of  Defender  of  the  Faith. 


Lecture  XV.  307 

lieved,  as  we  believe  now,  that  the  stories  which  had 
reached  hiin  were  invented  or  exasperated.  No  imaei- 
nation  could  invent,  no  malice  could  exaggerate,  what 
the  Papal  Court  had  really  become  under  Alexander, 
and  Julius,  and  Leo  X.  A  second  Hercules  would 
be  required  to  drive  sewers  under  the  mass  of  corrup- 
tion and  personal  profligacy  which  surrounded  the 
throne  of  St.  Peter.  The  general  government,  the 
courts  of  law,  the  household  administration,  the  public 
treasury  were  all  equally  infected  ;  legal  justice  and 
spiritual  privileges,  promotions,  dispensations,  pardons, 
indulgences,  licences,  all  sold  without  attempt  at  dis- 
guise ;  the  very  revenue  of  the  Holy  See  depending 
upon  simony ;  while  all  officials,  from  the  highest  car- 
dinal to  the  lowest  clerk  on  the  rota,  who  throve  upon 
the  system  were  combined  to  thwart  inquiry  and  pre- 
vent alteration. 

Adrian  might  well  quail  at  the  task  which  was  laid 
upon  him.  Erasmus,  on  learning  his  accession,  had, 
as  we  have  seen,  volunteered  a  letter  to  him,  which 
had  not  been  answered.  Erasmus  and  he  had  been 
schoolfellows  at  De venter,  and  acquaintances  after- 
wards at  Lou  vain,  where  Adrian  had  not  been  un- 
friendly to  him.  But  life  and  temperament  divided 
them.  Adrian,  a  strict  official  person,  could  not  have 
wholly  liked  what  he  heard  of  his  old  acquaintance. 
He  may  have  appreciated  his  learning,  but  Erasmus 
had  described  him,  in  a  slight  communication  which 
had  passed  between  them,  as  having  been  cold  and 
bitter.  To  Adrian  he  may  well  have  seemed  a  dan- 
gerous person  —  a  renegade  monk  who  had  thrown 
up  his  profession,  as  Luther  had  done  ;  who  had  wan- 
dered about  the  world  with  no  fixed  occupation,  show- 
ing brilliant  talents,  but  light,  careless,  given  too 
much  to  mockery  at  things  which  he,  at  least,    pre- 


308  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

tended  to  consider  sacred.  Orthodox  Catholics 
throughout  Europe  accused  Erasmus  of  having  set 
the  convulsion  going  with  his  "  Moria,"  his  New 
Testament,  and  the  satires  which  the  monks  insisted 
on  ascribing  to  him.  Yet  he  in  some  way  had  im- 
mense influence.  He  had  a  reputation,  which  detrac- 
tion could  not  take  from  him,  of  being  the  most 
learned  and  the  clearest-sighted  of  living  men.  He 
had  kept  aloof  from  Luther  when  his  support  would 
have  ensured  Luther  victory  at  Worms.  To  him 
Adrian  found  himself  obliged  to  apply  after  all  for 
assistance,  and  after  looking  round  him  at  Rome,  and 
finding  what  he  had  to  deal  with,  he  wrote  to  invite 
Erasmus  to  help  him  in  his  difficulties. 

ADRIAN    VI.    TO    ERASMUS.1 

December  1,  1522. 

God  may  be  trusted  to  stand  by  His  Spouse.  The 
Prophet  says,  "  I  beheld  the  wicked  man  exalted 
above  the  cedars  of  Lebanon.  I  went  by,  and  lo  he 
was  not.  I  sought  him,  but  his  place  could  nowhere 
be  found."  The  same  fate  doubtless  awaits  Luther 
and  those  who  go  after  him,  unless  they  repent.  They 
are  carnal  and  despise  authority,  and  they  would  make 
others  like  themselves.  Put  out  your  strength  there- 
fore. Rise  up  in  the  cause  of  the  Lord,  and  use  in 
His  service  the  gifts  which  the  Lord  has  bestowed  on 
you. 

It  lies  with  you,  God  helping,  to  recover  those  who 
have  been  seduced  by  Luther  from  the  right  road,  and 
to  hold  up  those  who  still  stand.  Remember  the 
words  of  St.  James :  "  He  that  recalls  a  sinner  from 
the  error  of  his  ways  shall  save  him  from  death,  and 
cover  the  multitude  of  his  sins."  I  need  not  tell  you 
with  what  joy  I  shall  receive  back  these  heretics  with- 
out need  to  smite  them  with  the  rod  of  the  Imperial 

1  Ep.  dcxxxix.,  abridged . 


Lecture  XV.  309 


law.  You  know  how  far  are  such  rough  methods  from 
my  own  nature.  I  am  still  as  you  knew  me  when  we 
were  students  together.  Come  to  me  to  Rome.  You 
will  find  here  the  books  which  you  will  need.  You 
will  have  myself  and  other  learned  men  to  consult 
with,  and  if  you  will  do  what  I  ask  you  shall  have  no 
cause  for  regret. 

This  letter  found  Erasmus  at  Bale.  It  meant, 
"  Crush  Luther  for  me,  and  you  have  a  bishopric  or  a 
red  hat."  Erasmus  was  not  to  be  tempted.  He  re- 
plies :  — 

ERASMUS   TO   ADRIAN   VI.1 

December  22,  1522. 

This  is  no  ordinary  storm.  Earth  and  air  are  con- 
vulsed —  arms,  opinions,  authorities,  factions,  hatreds, 
jarring  one  against  the  other.  If  your  Holiness  would 
hear  from  me  what  I  think  you  should  do  to  make  a 
real  cure,  I  will  tell  you  in  a  secret  letter.  If  you 
approve  my  advice  you  can  adopt  it.  If  not,  let  it 
remain  private  between  you  and  me.  We  common 
men  see  and  hear  things  which  escape  the  ears  of  the 
great.  But,  above  all,  let  no  private  animosities  or 
private  interests  influence  your  judgment.  We  little 
dreamt  when  we  jested  together  in  our  early  years 
what  times  were  coming.  With  the  Faith  itself  in 
peril,  we  must  beware  of  personal  affections.  I  am 
sorry  to  be  a  prophet  of  evil,  but  I  see  worse  perils 
approaching  than  I  like  to  think  of,  or  than  anyone 
seems  to  look  for. 

The  messenger  sped  back  to  Rome.  In  a  month  he 
had  returned  to  Bfile  with  another  anxious  note  2  from 
Adrian. 

January  23,  1523. 

Open  your  mind  to  me.  Speak  freely.  How  are 
these  foul  disorders  to  be  cured  while  there  is  still 

1  Ep.  dexxxix..  abridged. 
-  Ep.  dexlviii.,  abridged. 


310  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

time?  I  am  not  alarmed  for  myself.  I  am  not 
alarmed  for  the  Holy  See,  frightful  as  the  perils 
which  menace  it.  I  am  distressed  for  the  myriads  of 
sonls  who  are  going  to  perdition.  Be  swift  and  silent. 
Come  to  me  if  you  can,  and  come  quickly.  You  shall 
not  be  sorry  for  it. 

ERASMUS   TO   ADRIAN   VI.1 

BIle,  February,  1523. 

Your  Holiness  requires  my  advice,  and  you  wish  to 
see  me.  I  would  go  to  you  with  pleasure  if  my  health 
allowed.  But  the  road  over  the  Alps  is  long.  The 
lodgings  on  the  way  are  dirty  and  inconvenient.  The 
smell  from  the  stoves  is  intolerable.  The  wine  is  sour 
and  disagrees  with  me.  For  all  that  I  would  like 
well  to  speak  with  your  Holiness,  if  it  can  be  made 
possible.  Meanwhile  you  shall  have  my  honest  heart 
in  writing.  Your  eyes  and  mine  will  alone  see  my 
letter.  If  you  like  it  —  well.  If  not,  let  it  be  re- 
garded as  unwritten.  As  to  writing  against  Luther, 
I  have  not  learning  enough.  You  think  my  words 
will  have  authority.  Alas,  my  popularity,  such  as  I 
had,  is  turned  to  hatred.  Once  I  was  Prince  of  Let- 
ters, Star  of  Germany,  Sun  of  Studies,  High  Priest  of 
Learning,  Champion  of  a  Purer  Theology.  The  note 
is  altered  now.  One  party  says  I  agree  with  Luther 
because  I  do  not  oppose  him.  The  other  finds  faidt 
with  me  because  I  do  oppose  him.  I  did  what  I 
could.  I  advised  him  to  be  moderate,  and  I  only 
made  his  friends  my  enemies.  At  Rome  and  in  Bra- 
bant I  am  called  heretic,  heresiarch,  schismatic.  I 
entirely  disagree  with  Luther.  They  quote  this  and 
that  to  show  we  are  alike.  I  could  find  a  hundred 
passages  where  St.  Paul  seems  to  teach  the  doctrines 
which  they  condemn  in  Luther.  I  did  not  anticipate 
what  a  time  was  coming.  I  did,  I  admit,  help  to 
bring  it  on,  but  I  was  always  willing  to  submit  what  I 

1  Ep.  dcxlix.,  abridged.  The  dates  imply  that  these  letters  were 
sent  by  special  courier,  from  the  rapidity  with  which  they  were  ex- 
changed. 


Lecture  XV.  311 

wrote  to  the  Church.  I  asked  my  friends  to  point  out 
anything  which  they  thought  wrong.  They  found 
nothing.  They  encouraged  me  to  persevere  ;  and  now 
they  find  a  scorpion  under  every  stone,  and  would 
drive  me  to  rebellion,  as  they  drove  Arius  and  Ter- 
tullian. 

Those  counsel  you  best  who  advise  gentle  measures. 
The  monks  —  Atlases,  as  they  call  themselves,  of  a 
tottering  Church  —  estrange  those  who  would  be  its 
supporters.  Alas,  that  I  in  my  old  age  should  have 
fallen  into  such  a  mess,  like  a  mouse  into  a  pitch-pot. 
Your  Holiness  wishes  to  set  things  right,  and  you  say 
to  me,  "  Come  to  Rome.  Write  a  book  against  Lu- 
ther. Declare  war  against  his  party."  Come  to 
Rome?  Tell  a  crab  to  fly.  The  crab  will  say,  "  Give 
me  wings."  I  say,  "  Give  me  back  my  youth  and 
strength."  I  beseech  you  let  the  poor  sheep  speak  to 
his  shepherd.  What  good  can  I  do  at  Rome?  It 
was  said  in  Germany  that  I  was  sent  for ;  that  I  was 
hurrying  to  you  for  a  share  in  the  spoils.  If  I  write 
anything  at  Rome,  it  will  be  thought  that  I  am  bribed. 
If  I  write  temperately,  I  shall  seem  trifling.  If  I 
copy  Luther's  style,  I  shall  stir  a  hornets'  nest. 

But  you  ask  me  what  you  are  to  do.  Well,  some 
think  there  is  no  remedy  but  force.  That  is  not  my 
opinion  ;  for  I  think  there  would  be  frightful  blood- 
shed. The  question  is  not  what  heresy  deserves,  but 
how  to  deal  with  it  wisely.  Things  have  gone  too  far 
for  cautery.  Wickliff  and  his  followers  were  put  down 
by  the  English  kings  ;  but  they  were  only  crushed,  not 
extinguished ;  and  besides,  England  is  one  country 
under  a  single  sovereign.  Germany  is  an  aggregate 
of  separate  principalities,  and  I  do  not  see  how  force 
is  to  be  applied  in  Germany.  However  that  be,  if  you 
mean  to  try  prisons,  lashes,  confiscations, stake,  and  scaf- 
fold, you  need  no  help  from  me.  You  yourself,  I  know, 
are  for  mild  measures  ;  but  you  have  no  one  about 
you  who  cares  for  anything  but  himself;  and  if  divines 
only  think  of  their  authority,  monks  of  their  luxuries, 
princes  of  their  politics,  and  all  take  the  bit  between 


312  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

their  teeth,  what  can  we  expect  ?  For  myself  I  should 
say,  discover  the  roots  of  the  disease.  Clean  out  those 
to  begin  with.  Punish  no  one.  Let  what  has  taken 
place  be  regarded  as  a  chastisement  sent  by  Providence, 
and  grant  a  universal  amnesty.  If  God  forgives  so 
many  sins,  God's  vicar  may  forgive.  The  magistrates 
may  prevent  revolutionary  violence.  If  possible, 
there  should  be  a  check  on  the  printing  presses. 
Then  let  the  world  know  and  see  that  you  mean  in 
earnest  to  reform  the  abuses  which  are  justly  cried 
out  against,  and  if  your  Holiness  desires  to  know  what 
the  roots  are  to  which  I  refer,  send  persons  whom  you 
can  trust  to  every  part  of  Latin  Christendom.  Let 
them  consult  the  wisest  men  that  they  can  find  in  the 
different  countries,  and  you  will  soon  know. 

It  has  been  often  observed  that  the  policy  of  the 
papacy  is  little  affected  by  the  personal  character  of 
the  Popes.  Had  Adrian  been  able  to  act  for  himself, 
he  would  perhaps  have  taken  Erasmus's  advice ;  but 
without  a  single  honest  official  to  help  him  he  could 
do  nothing.  He  inquired  into  such  roots  as  could  be 
seen  at  Rome  ;  he  found  that  if  he  abolished  indul- 
gences, reformed  the  law  courts,  and  gave  up  simony 
and  extortion,  he  would  sacrifice  two-thirds  of  his  rev- 
enues. He  wrote  no  more  to  Erasmus ;  he  perhaps 
resented  his  refusal  to  help  him  in  the  way  that  he  had 
asked.  He  silenced  the  barking  of  the  Carmelite  Lou- 
vainers,  but  nothing  further  passed  between  them. 
Adrian  soon  died  —  helped  out  of  life,  perhaps,  by  the 
hopelessness  of  his  task.  He  was  succeeded  by  an  Ital- 
ian of  the  old  school,  bred  in  the  Court  of  Alexander 
VI.  and  Julius  II.,  who  became  known  to  the  world  as 
Clement  VII.,  and  the  papacy  went  on  upon  its  pre- 
destined and  fatal  road. 

Meanwhile  the  German  population  burst  through 
control,  and  all  was  confusion.     The  Emperor  could 


Lecture  XV.  313 

not  move  a  single  man-at-arms  without  the  consent  of 
the  Diet  and  the  free  towns,  and  the  majority  of  the 
princes  either  took  the  Lutheran  side  or  refused  to 
lend  the  Emperor  a  hand.  Bishops  were  suspended 
from  office,  and  their  lands  sequestered.  Church 
courts,  with  their  summoners  and  apparitors,  were 
swept  away.  Religious  houses  were  dissolved,  their 
property  seized  to  the  State,  and  monks  and  nuns, 
many  of  them  too  happy  to  be  free,  were  sent  out 
with  trifling  pensions  to  work  for  their  living  and  to 
marry.  The  images  were  removed  from  the  churches  ; 
the  saints'  shrines  were  burnt,  and  the  relics  which 
had  worked  so  many  miracles  for  others  could  work 
none  to  protect  themselves.  The  overthrow  of  idola- 
try was  so  universal  and  so  spontaneous  that  it 
was  found  necessary  to  restore  order  of  some  kind. 
Luther  only  had  sufficient  influence  to  control  the 
storm.  The  Elector  of  Saxony  recalled  him  from 
Wartburg,  as  he  was  no  longer  in  personal  danger,  to 
take  command  in  reorganising  the  Church.  The 
Germans  were  essentially  an  orderly  people.  They 
had  destroyed  the  nests  of  what  they  regarded  as  ver- 
min. They  had  deprived  unjust  persons  of  tyrannical 
authority,  but  they  did  not  want  anarclry  and  atheism. 
Luther  had  brought  back  with  him  his  translation  of 
the  Bible,  to  be  immediately  completed  and  printed. 
A  communion  service  something  like  our  own  was 
substituted  for  the  mass,  bishops  only  and  episcopal  or- 
dination being  dispensed  with  as  an  occasion  of  super- 
stition. A  catechism  of  doctrine  was  introduced  for 
schools,  and  as  a  guide  for  Church  ministers  ;  and  the 
Lutheran  religion  became  by  spontaneous  impulse  the 
established  creed  of  two-thirds  of  the  German  nation. 
The  Emperor,  for  the  time,  was  powerless  ;  but  Eras- 
mus knew  that  however  smoothly  the  stream  might  run 


314  Life   and  Letters   of  Erasmus. 

for  the  moment,  there  would  be  rocks  enough  ahead. 
His  dread  from  the  first  had  been  of  civil  war,  and 
civil  war  embittered  with  the  malignity  which  only 
religion  could  inspire.  Though  the  majority  had  been 
for  the  change,  there  were  still  multitudes  in  every 
State  who  clung  to  their  old  creed  and  resented  its 
overthrow.  The  danger  in  the  mind  of  Erasmus  was 
infinitely  enhanced  by  the  construction  of  a  new  the- 
ology. The  Church  had  burdened  the  consciences  of 
men  with  too  many  dogmas  already.  Were  wretched 
mortals  to  be  further  bound  to  particular  opinions  on 
free  will,  on  predestination,  on  original  sin?  Each 
new  definition  was  a  symbol  of  war,  an  emblem  of 
division,  an  impulse  to  quarrel.  Dogmas  which  did 
not  touch  moral  conduct  were  a  gratuitous  trial  of 
faith.  From  the  nature  of  the  case  dogmatic  proposi- 
tions did  not  admit  of  proof ;  and  the  appeal  was 
immediately  to  passion.  The  Catholic  Church  had 
been  brought  to  its  present  state  by  these  exaggerated 
refinements.  If  out  of  the  present  controversies  there 
was  to  rise  a  new  body  of  doctrine,  a  rival  symbolum 
jidei,  as  a  criterion  of  Christianity,  there  was  nothing 
to  be  looked  for  but  an  age  of  hatred  and  fury. 
To  Erasmus  religion  was  a  rule  of  life,  a  perpetual 
reminder  to  mankind  of  their  responsibility  to  their 
Maker,  a  spiritual  authority  under  which  individuals 
could  learn  their  duties  to  God  and  to  their  neighbour. 
Definitions  on  mysterious  subjects  which  could  not  be 
understood  were  the  growth  of  intellectual  vanity. 
The  hope  of  his  life  had  been  to  see  the  dogmatic 
system  slackened,  the  articles  essential  to  be  believed 
reduced  to  the  Apostles'  Creed,  the  declaration  that 
God  was  a  reality,  and  the  future  judgment  a  fact  and 
a  certainty.  On  all  else  he  wished  to  see  opinion  free. 
The  name  of  heresy  was  a  terror,  but  so  long  as  the 


Lecture  XV.  315 

Church  abstained  from  deciding  there  could  be  no 
heresy.  Men  would  tolerate  each  other's  differences 
and  live  in  peace  together.  The  new  movement  would 
provoke  antagonistic  decrees,  multiply  occasions  of 
quarrel,  and  lead  once  more  to  the  confusion  of  piety 
of  life  with  the  holding  this  or  that  form  of  belief. 

While  Luther  was  under  the  ban  of  the  empire, 
excommunicated  by  the  Pope,  under  sentence  of  death, 
with  the  Elector  unable  to  defend  him  save  by  con- 
cealing his  existence,  Erasmus  had  refused  to  set  upon 
a  fallen  man.  Luther  brought  back  to  life,  and  the 
leader  of  a  powerful  schism,  actually  busy  in  creating 
and  organising  an  opposition  Church,  was  another  per- 
son altogether.  Christendom  was  about  to  split  into 
factions.  Each  nation  might  perhaps  become  a  sepa- 
rate burning  crater,  and  while  the  metal  was  still  hot 
and  malleable  Erasmus  felt  that  speak  he  must.  He 
wrote  privately  to  the  German  princes.  From  all  save 
those  who  had  definitely  taken  Luther's  side  came  the 
same  answer — that  he  must  himself  take  an  open 
part.  Luther  had  at  first  desired  nothing  beyond  a 
reform  of  scandal  and  immorality,  and  it  was  still  pos- 
sible for  reasonable  men  of  both  parties  to  combine  on 
a  practical  principle.  It  was  represented  to  Erasmus 
that  by  continuing  silent  he  was  allowing  things  to 
crystallise  into  a  form  which  woidd  make  reconcilia- 
tion impossible.  Clement  VII.  wrote  to  entreat  him 
to  do  what  he  could.  Cardinal  Campegio  was  sent 
again  to  Germany  to  restore  peace,  if  peace  could  be 
had.  Campegio  found  Erasmus  specially  provoked 
by  a  fresh  and  violent  attack  upon  himself  from  the 
Lutheran  side.  The  sting  was  poisoned  by  the  hand 
from  which  it  came.  Ulrich  von  Ilutten  had  been  the 
most  brilliant  and  the  wittiest  of  the  band  who  had 
followed  Erasmus  and  lieuchlin  into  the  land  of  light. 


316  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

He  had  attached  himself  afterwards  passionately  to 
Luther,  had  sworn  at  Worms  that  if  Luther's  life  was 
touched  he  would  have  the  Legate's  in  return.  He 
could  not  understand  the  hesitation  of  Erasmus.  He 
despised  it  as  cowardice,  and  tried  to  gall  him  by 
satire  into  taking  what  Hutten  considered  his  proper 
place.  During  Luther's  eclipse  at  Wartburg,  Hut- 
ten  had  led  the  party  of  revolution  and  iconoclasm. 
He  had  always  been  to  the  front  when  a  sisterhood 
had  to  be  scattered  or  a  reluctant  abbot  expelled 
from  his  nest,  while  Hutten's  own  character,  unless 
fame  had  done  him  injustice,  was  not  as  pure  as  it 
might  be. 

Erasmus  was  obliged  to  demolish  Hutten's  invec- 
tives, and  effectually  he  did  it  in  a  pamphlet  which  he 
called  "  Spongia "  (Wipe  it  up  and  say  no  more 
about  it).  "  Spongia  "  was  called  cruelty  to  an  old 
friend.  Erasmus  appealed  to  the  conscience  of  those 
who  knew  Hutten's  character.  Hutten  himself  died 
shortly  after,  and  the  bright,  witty,  wayward,  not  wise 
career  was  burnt  out  and  ended. 

Erasmus  gives  a  brief  account  of  all  this  to  a  friend, 
and  then  adds  :  — 

If  we  curse  the  Church  of  Rome,  and  the  Church  of 
Rome  curses  us,  what  is  to  be  looked  for  but  a  bloody 
civil  war  ?  I  had  tried  to  bring  about  peace,  and  the 
evangelicals  called  me  Balaam.  My  crime  was  that  I 
showed  the  princes  how  I  thought  this  quarrel  could 
be  ended  with  least  injury  to  Gospel  liberty.  The  new 
Pope  professes  willingness  to  reform  what  is  wrong. 
He  has  sent  Cardinal  Campegio  as  legate  to  Germany. 
Campegio  is  one  of  the  most  just  and  reasonable  of 
men.  Yet  they  cry  out  at  him  as  if  they  would  make 
the  confusion  worse  confounded.  It  will  be  their  own 
fault  if  the  princes  become  angry  by-and-by,  and  make 
many  of  them  smart  for  it,  and  then  they  will  wish 


Lecture  XV.  317 

that  they  had  listened  more  patiently  to  rne.  Some  of 
them  have  grown  past  bearing.  They  profess  the 
Gospel,  and  they  will  obey  neither  prince  nor  bishop 
—  not  Luther  himself,  unless  what  he  says  approves 
itself  to  them.  Am  I  to  be  treated  as  a  criminal  if  I 
desire  to  see  reforms  carried  out  decently  under  con- 
stituted authority,  instead  of  leaving  them  to  violence 
and  mob  law  ?  They  speak  of  me  as  if  they  were  try- 
ing to  put  a  fire  out,  and  I  was  interfering  with  them. 
They  would  cure  the  diseases  of  a  thousand  years' 
standing  with  medicines  which  will  be  fatal  to  the 
whole  body.  The  Apostles  were  patient  with  the 
Jews  who  were  reluctant  to  part  with  their  law.  Can 
these  New  Gospellers  have  no  patience  with  men  who 
cling  to  doctrines  sanctioned  by  ages  and  taught  by 
popes  and  councils  and  saints,  and  cannot  gulp  down 
the  new  wine  ?  Suppose  them  right.  Suppose  all 
that  they  say  is  true.  Let  them  do  Christ's  work  in 
Christ's  spirit,  and  then  I  may  try  if  I  can  help  them. 

The  Pope,  the  princes,  his  own  personal  friends,  all 
were  urging  Erasmus  to  step  into  the  arena.  His  own 
clear  perception  of  the  certain  consequences  of 
Luther's  action,  his  hatred  of  fanatics,  and  his  consti- 
tutional dread  of  enthusiasm,  alike  invited  him  to 
write  before  it  was  too  late,  not  to  support  or  defend 
the  Church  while  it  was  still  unreformed,  but  to  pro- 
test against  the  final  crystallising  of  a  new  scheme  of 
doctrine  to  entangle  weak  consciences  and  make  recon- 
ciliation for  ever  impossible. 

My  design  (he  said)  was  to  compose  three  collo- 
quies; Thrasymachus  to  represent  Luther,  Eubulus 
the  Catholic  Church,  with  Philalethes  for  arbiter.  In 
the  first  they  were  to  discuss  whether  if  Luther  had 
been  right  in  substance  he  had  been  wise  in  the  man- 
ner in  which  he  had  put  the  truth  forward.  In  the 
second  they  would  examine  his  particular  doctrines. 
The  third   would    suggest   how   the   wound   could  be 


318  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

healed  so  that  it  should  not  break  out  again.  The 
two  advocates  would  argue  calmly,  without  personal 
reflections,  and  nothing  would  be  alleged  which  was 
not  notoriously  true.  Extreme  partisans  clamoured 
for  severity.  My  plan  was  to  leave  each  party  to 
keep  their  own  opinions.  Severity  would  be  easiest, 
but  toleration  seemed  to  me  most  expedient.  When 
a  single  limb  only  is  injured,  cautery  or  the  knife  may 
be  successful.  When  the  disease  has  spread  over  the 
whole  body,  and  gone  into  the  veins  and  nerves,  the 
poison  can  only  be  drawn  out  of  the  system  by  degrees. 
I  undertook  the  task  at  the  request  of  Alexander 
Glapio  and  several  others.  Glapio  had  written  often 
to  me  about  it,  and  was  speaking  for  the  Emperor. 
Mount  joy  also  had  pressed  me.  I  was  busy  at  the 
moment  with  other  things,  and  the  plan  is  rather  con- 
ceived than  begun.  I  dislike  work  of  this  kind.  I 
hate  disputing,  and  prefer  harmless  play.  Moreover, 
to  execute  it  properly  is  work  for  a  Hercules,  and  I 
am  but  a  pigmy.  I  cannot  say  how  it -will  be.  Each 
party  is  now  so  incensed  that  it  will  conquer  or  perish. 
The  defeat  of  Luther  will  destroy  evangelical  truth 
and  Christian  liberty,  while  Luther's  enemies  will  not 
be  crushed  without  a  deperate  fight.  I  would  have 
the  strife  so  ended  that  each  side  shall  yield  the  victory 
to  Christ.  The  princes  know  my  opinion.  They  may 
adopt  it  or  not  as  they  please.  But  I  would  have  no 
sentence  given  either  way.  If  my  book  was  published 
it  would  be  seen  whether  I  was  right.  No  one  ought 
to  be  offended  with  what  I  have  written  hitherto.  The 
evangelicals,  however,  will  allow  no  dissent  from 
Luther,  and  will  stone  a  man  who  thinks  for  himself. 
I  had  been  working  for  peace.  I  had  hoped  that  both 
parties  would  have  used  my  help.  The  Emperor  had 
been  consulted,  and  had  approved.  Unhappily,  each 
side  was  so  obstinate  in  its  own  conviction  that  I  found 
my  "  Eirenicon  "  would  only  make  me  hated  all  round, 
so  I  hesitated  to  go  on  with  it.  I  can  but  pray  now 
that  God,  who  alone  can,  may  allay  this  tempest. 


LECTURE  XVI. 

The  worst  enemy  that  Erasmus  had,  the  Carmelite 
Eginond  himself,  could  not  accuse  him  of  interested 
motives.  Rank  and  wealth  had  long  been  within  his 
reach  had  he  cared  to  sell  his  services  either  to  prince 
or  pope.  He  had  refused  to  part  with  his  liberty, 
and  we  have  seen  the  straits  to  which  he  was  some- 
times driven  to  recruit  his  finances.  He  had  now 
pensions  from  the  Emperor,  from  Archbishop  War- 
ham,  and  Lord  Mountjoy,  amounting  together  to  400 
gold  florins  a  year.  It  ought  to  have  been  more  than 
enough.  Luther's  income  was  perhaps  a  tenth  of 
that,  and  Luther  counted  himself  rich.  But  Erasmus 
was  not  Luther.  His  habits  had  always  been  expen- 
sive, and  supplies  still  occasionally  fell  short.  Friends 
made  up  the  deficiency.  Presents  of  money  were 
made  to  him,  more  often  presents  of  plate,  of  which 
he  had  at  times  a  cupboard  full ;  but  he  gave  away  to 
poor  scholars  as  much  as  he  received.  His  books  had 
a  vast  circulation  ;  he  had  just  published  his  "  Collo- 
quies." Twenty-four  thousand  copies  were  sold  im- 
mediately, and  he  was  supposed  to  have  received  large 
sums  for  them.  But  the  book  trade  was  not  then  as 
it  is  now,  and  then,  and  for  two  centuries  later,  works 
which  went  deepest  into  the  minds  of  mankind  brought 
small  reward  to  their  authors.  Shakespeare  never 
cared  to  see  his  plays  through  the  press.  Milton  had 
five  pounds  for  "Paradise  Lost."  Even  Voltaire  and 
Goethe,  with  all  Europe  for  a  public,  were  poorly  paid 
in  money. 


320  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

I  am  thought  (Erasmus  said)  to  receive  a  harvest 
from  Frobeu ;  he  has  made  more  reputation  than 
profit  out  of  me.  I  have  not  been  persuaded  to  take 
as  much  as  he  offered  me,  and  he  will  himself  admit 
that  what  I  have  accepted  has  been  but  very  little. 
Nor  would  I  have  accepted  what  I  did  unless  it  had 
been  forced  upon  me,  and  unless  he  had  proved  to  me 
that  it  came  from  his  firm  and  not  from  himself. 

Thus,  the  400  florins  were  all  on  which  Erasmus 
had  to  depend.  They  came,  as  I  said,  from  the  Em- 
peror, Lord  Mount  joy,  and  Archbishop  Warham.  All 
three,  with  More  and  Fisher  and  the  Pope,  the  moder- 
ate party  everywhere,  were  alike  earnest  with  him  to 
answer  Luther  in  some  way  or  other.  The  "  Eireni- 
con "  would  not  do ;  some  fuller  expression  of  opinion 
was  wanted  of  him,  and  in  the  position  in  which  he 
stood  it  was  peculiarly  difficult  for  him  to  refuse.  He 
consented  at  last,  and  perhaps  with  less  reluctance 
than  might  have  been  expected  from  his  past  hesita- 
tion. The  subject  which  he  chose  was  the  freedom  of 
the  will.  He  is  supposed  to  have  selected  what  was 
apparently  a  point  of  obscure  metaphysics,  on  which 
he  could  maintain  his  own  view  without  provoking  a 
too  violent  conflict.  I  do  not  think  myself  that  this 
was  his  reason.  What  he  most  disliked,  what  he 
most  feared  from  Luther,  was  the  construction  of 
a  new  dogmatic  theology,  of  which  the  denial  of 
the  freedom  of  the  human  will  was  the  corner-stone. 
It  was  one  of  those  problems  which  he  particularly 
desired  to  see  left  alone,  because  it  is  insoluble 
by  argument.  Shallow  men,  says  a  wise  philosopher, 
all  fancy  that  they  are  free  to  do  as  they  please. 
All  deep  thinkers  know  that  their  wills  are  condi- 
tioned by  nature  and  circumstance,  and  that  we  learn 
to  live  and  act  as  we   learn   everything  else.      All 


Lecture  XVI.  321 

trades,  all  arts,  from  the  cobbling  of  a  shoe  to  the 
painting  of  a  picture,  must  be  learned  before  they  can 
be  practised.  The  cobbler  does  not  tell  the  apprentice, 
when  for  the  first  time  he  puts  a  piece  of  leather  in 
his  hand,  that  his  will  is  free,  that  he  can  make  a  shoe 
out  of  it  if  he  pleases,  and  that  he  will  be  wicked  if 
he  makes  it  badly.  The  schoolmaster  does  not  tell  a 
boy  he  is  wicked  if  he  brings  up  a  bad  Latin  exercise. 
Cobbler  and  schoolmaster  show  their  pupil  how  things 
ought  to  be  done,  correct  his  faults,  bear  patiently 
with  many  shortcomings,  and  are  content  with  gradual 
improvement.  It  is  practically  the  same  with  human 
life.  The  child  has  many  falls,  bodily  and  spiritual, 
before  he  learns  to  walk.  He  is  naturally  wilful, 
selfish,  ignorant,  violent,  or  timid.  Education  means 
the  curing-  of  all  that.  You  do  not  call  the  child 
wicked  because  he  is  not  perfect  all  at  once.  The 
will,  if  you  can  get  at  it,  may  do  something,  but  it 
cannot  do  everything.  In  this  sense  we  are  obliged  to 
act  on  the  principle  that  the  will  is  not  by  itself  suffi- 
cient to  direct  and  control  conduct.  Guidance  is 
wanted,  and  help  and  instruction  ;  and  when  all  is 
done  we  must  still  make  allowances  for  an  imperfect 
result.  Perfection,  or  even  excellence,  is  rare  in  any 
art  or  occupation.  First-rate  artists  are  rare.  Saints 
and  heroes  are  rare.  Special  gifts  are  needed,  which 
are  the  privilege  of  the  few.  To  tell  an  ordinary  man 
that  if  he  will  use  his  free  will  he  can  paint  a  first- 
rate  picture,  or  become  a  Socrates  or  a  St.  Paul,  is  to 
tell  him  what  is  not  true. 

So  looked  at,  the  subject  presents  no  difficulty. 
"We  have  but  to  assume  that  right  moral  action  is 
learnt  by  teaching  and  practice;  like  everything  else, 
and  there  is  no  more  perplexity  in  one  than  in  the 
other.     Some  persons  are  more  gifted    than  others, 


322  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

some  have  happier  dispositions,  some  are  better  edu- 
cated, some  are  placed  in  more  favourable  circumstan- 
ces. The  pains  which  we  take  in  training  children ; 
the  allowances  which  we  make  and  are  compelled  to 
make,  for  inherited  vicious  tendencies,  for  the  environ- 
ment of  vice  and  ignorance  in  which  so  many  are 
brought  up,  prove  that  in  practice  we  act,  and  must 
act,  on  this  hypothesis. 

Catholic  theologians,  however,  step  in  on  the  other 
side  with  an  absolute  rule  of  right,  to  which  they  in- 
sist that  everyone,  young  and  old,  wise  and  ignorant, 
is  bound  to  conform,  and  is  able  to  conform.  Each 
act  of  child  or  man,  they  say,  is  a  choice  between 
two  courses,  one  right,  the  other  wrong ;  that  the 
Maker  of  us  expects  everyone  to  do  right,  holds  him 
guilty  and  liable  to  punishment  if  he  falls  short,  and 
gives  him  originally  a  free  will  which  enables  him,  if 
he  pleases,  to  do  what  he  is  required  to  do.  It  does  not 
avail  him  that  after  he  has  fallen  he  recovers  himself, 
profits  by  knowledge  and  experience,  and  improves  as 
he  grows  older.  Even  so  he  will  always  fall  short  of 
the  best,  while  his  failures,  even  the  errors  of  his  youth, 
are  all  recorded  against  him.  His  Maker  gives  him 
free  will.  He  uses  it  to  choose  the  evil  and  refuse  the 
good.  He  has  a  conscience  which  might  have  guided 
him  right  if  he  had  attended  to  it.  He  prefers  his 
own  pleasure,  and  falls  into  sin.  Such  is  the  theolo- 
gical doctrine  of  free  will ;  but  the  boldest  theologian 
is  obliged  to  acknowledge  that  in  no  single  instance 
since  man  was  created  has  it  availed  for  the  purpose. 
All  have  sinned,  all  have  fallen  short,  is  the  cry  from 
the  beginning.  Theologians  have  accounted  for  it, 
not  by  doubting  their  hypothesis,  but  by  assuming  a 
taint  in  the  nature  derived  from  our  first  ancestors. 
The  natural  man,  they  say,  is  born  with  a  preponder- 


Lecture  XVI.  323 

ance  towards  evil.     It  does  not  excuse  his  faults  that 
lie  cauuot  help  theni :  the  sin  remains,  entailing  future 
vengeance.      But  he   is  not  left  without    a  remedy. 
Extraordinary  means  have  been  provided,  by  which 
the  past  can  be  pardoned  and  strength  obtained  for 
the   more   effectual   resistance   of   temptation.      The 
Catholic    Church    finds    it    in    the    sacraments.     The 
child  is  regenerated  in  baptism.     His  regenerate  na- 
ture is  mysteriously  supported  by  the  Eucharist.     He 
is  then  made  able  to  keep  the  Commandments.     He 
does  keep  them.     He   may  become   a   saint   so  pre- 
eminently holy  that  he  can  become  meritorious  beyond 
his  own  needs.     The  mass  of  mankind  will  continue 
to  fall  short ;  but  they  may  confess,  they  may  repent, 
and   a   priest   may  absolve   them  in  virtue  of   those 
supererogatory  merits.     Hence  came  the  doctrine  that 
over  and  above  what  the  saints  needed  for  their  own 
salvation  they  had  left  behind  a  store  of  good  works 
in  the  Church's  treasure-house,  of  which  the  Church 
had  the  distribution  ;  and  out  of  this  had  grown  by 
the  natural  laws  of  corruption  the  extraordinary  system 
of  masses,  pardons,  and  indulgences  which  had  out- 
raged the  conscience  of    Europe,  and  against  which 
Luther   had   risen  up  to   protest.     Luther  answered 
that  human  nature  remained  after  sacraments  as  be- 
fore, equally  unable  to  keep  God's  law.     He  retained 
the  theological  conception  of  sin.     He  admitted  that 
absolute  and  complete  obedience  was  required  by  the 
law ;    that   failure   to    obey    incurred    Divine    wrath. 
Yet,  in  Luther's  view,  man,  baptized  or  unbaptized, 
was   equally   incapable    of  such  complete  obedience. 
Merit  there  could  be  none,  even  among  the    saints. 
The  best  were  still  imperfect,  unable  by    their  own 
works  even  to  save  themselves,  and  the  stock  of  good 
works  accumulated  and  distributed  by  the  Church  was 


324  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

a  fiction  and  a  fraud.  The  only  hope  of  salvation  lay 
in  the  acknowledgment  by  everyone  of  his  lost  condi- 
tion, and  a  casting  himself  by  faith  on  the  merits  of 
Christ,  not  on  the  merits  of  the  saints  or  priestly  abso- 
lutions. Inequality  of  character  and  conduct  were 
facts  of  experience,  and  could  be  explained  only  by 
the  pleasure  and  purpose  of  God.  It  was  not  true 
that  man  of  himself  by  his  free  will  could  please  his 
Maker.  His  free  will  was  bound  under  sin,  and  the 
difference  between  man  and  man  meant  only  that  to 
some  grace  was  given  sufficient  for  inadequate  obedi- 
ence ;  to  others  it  was  refused.  Some  were  vessels 
made  to  honour,  some  to  dishonour,  predestinated  by  a 
purpose  which  was  certain,  though  none  could  under- 
stand it ;  and  thus  was  arising  that  body  of  Protest- 
ant dogma  with  which  we  are  all  familiar:  partly 
negative,  that  the  priesthood  is  an  illusion  and  the 
sacraments  merely  symbols  ;  partly  positive,  the  dog- 
mas of  the  bondage  of  the  will,  of  election,  reproba- 
tion, predestination,  the  universal  sinfulness,  the  inef- 
ficacy  of  good  works,  justification  by  faith  as  the 
canon  of  a  standing  or  falling  Church. 

I  cannot  go  into  all  this.  Luther's  theory  of  the 
will  is  the  same  as  that  which  philosophers  like 
Spinoza  and  Schopenhauer  arrive  at  by  another  road. 
It  contradicts  superficial  experience,  as  the  astronomic 
explanation  of  the  movements  of  the  stars  appears  to 
contradict  the  evidence  of  our  senses  ;  but  is  perhaps 
the  most  consistent  at  bottom  with  the  actual  facts 
which  we  observe. 

But  religion  addresses  the  vulgar,  and  must  speak 
in  language  commonly  intelligible.  The  conclusions 
of  Protestant  theology  may  be  held,  and  have  been 
held,  by  powerful  and  intensely  devotional  thinkers, 
and  the  same  may  be  said  of  Catholic  theology.     Cath- 


Lecture  XVI.  325 

olic  mysteries,  however,  among  the  vulgar  degenerate 
into  idolatry;  while  predestination,  the   bondage    of 
the  will,  the  denial  of  human  merit,  justification  by 
faith   only,  serve   in   ordinary   minds    occupied    with 
worldly  interests  as  an  excuse  for  the  neglect  of  duty. 
What  use  could  there  be,  men  asked,  in  strusrsrline  to 
obey  the  law  when  the  law  could  not  be  obeyed,  and 
the  salvation  of  the  soul  was  to  be  secured,  if  secured 
at  all,  independently  of  efforts  of  our  own  ?     Mankind 
are  always  willing  to  find  a  substitute  for  moral  obe- 
dience, whether  in  sacrifices  and  rituals  or  in  doctrinal 
formulas.     At  a  time  when  thinkers  like  Erasmus  or 
statesmen  like  Charles  V.  or  Granvelle  were  trying  to 
restore  peace  to  Christendom  by  relaxing  the  doctrinal 
bonds,  by  leaving  men  to  think  for  themselves  on  mat- 
ters not  affecting  moral  conduct,  and  setting  heartily 
to  work  to  reform  corrupted  manners,  they  were  nat- 
urally irritated  and  dismayed  when  they  saw  a  rival 
system  of  doctrine  crystallising  into  shape  and  split- 
ting Christendom  into  new  lines  of  cleavage.     Eras- 
mus, More,  Fisher,  Warham,  Charles  V.,  George  of 
Saxony,  and  many  besides  them  who  had  been  eager 
and  active  in  urging  practical  reform,  fell  off,  indig- 
nant at  this  new  move  of  Luther's.     Like  enough  it 
was   inevitable.     Like   enough   the   Romish    Church 
would  have  proved  too  strong  for  reason  and  modera- 
tion, and  coidd  be  encountered  only   by    a   spiritual 
force  as  aggressive  as  its  own.     I  am  here  only  trying 
to   explain    to   you  how  a  man  like  Sir  T.  More,  a 
bishop  like  Fisher  of  Rochester,  came,  as  they  said,  to 
hate  Luther  and  burn  Lutherans;  how  Henry  VIII. 
came   to   write   against   Luther;  how    Erasmus  con- 
sented at  last  to  take    pen  in  hand  to  strike  at  the 
heart  of  Luther's  system,  and  produce  his  boob  "  De 
Libero  Arbitrio."     It  has  been  supposed  that,  having 


326  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

been  worried  into  compliance  with  a  demand  that  he 
should  write  something,  he  chose  an  abstruse  meta- 
physical subject,  on  which  temper  would  be  least 
aroused.  I  should  rather  say  that  he  aimed  his  lance 
at  the  heart  of  Luther's  doctrinal  system,  which,  if 
once  fixed  in  men's  minds,  would  lead  to  interminable 
wars. 

The  book  produced  no  effect  further  than  as  it  was 
a  public  intimation  that  Erasmus  did  not  agree  with 
Luther.  It  was  unsatisfactory,  for  the  condition  of 
public  opinion  would  not  allow  him  to  tell  the  real 
truth.  The  subject  was  too  deep  for  the  multitude. 
His  friends  at  Rome  had  looked  for  something  which 
could  be  turned  to  their  own  purposes.  Luther  scorn- 
fully advised  him  to  remain  a  spectator  in  a  game  for 
which  he  lacked  courage  to  play  a  manly  part.  To 
the  "  De  Libero  Arbitrio  "  Luther  replied  with  an 
equally  contemptuous  "  De  Servo  Arbitrio,"  to  the 
delight  of  his  followers,  though  it  was  an  odd  matter 
to  be  delighted  about.  Erasmus  answered  with  "  Hy- 
peraspistes,"  which  charmed  Sir  Thomas  More  ;  but 
attack  and  defence  alike  are  wearying,  like  all  contro- 
versies, to  later  readers. 

The  mud  volcanoes  of  the  day  burst  into  furious 
eruption.  Erasmus  refused  to  be  provoked.  It  was 
then  that  he  spoke  of  the  innocent  hen's  egg  which  he 
had  laid,  and  the  cock  which  Luther  had  hatched. 

But  at  any  rate  he  had  done  what  his  moderate 
friends  required  of  him,  and,  having  done  it,  we  find 
him  working  more  strenuously  than  ever  to  bring 
about  a  peace,  corresponding  with  the  Emperor,  the 
Chancellor,  the  King  of  France,  the  German  princes, 
Catholic  bishops,  and  reforming  divines,  working,  too, 
all  the  time  with  superhuman  industry  at  his  special 
work  of   editing  the  Fathers.     He    had   not   broken 


Lecture  XVI.  327 

with  the  reformers,  nor  even  with  Luther  himself,  ex- 
cept so  far  as  Luther  insisted.  His  letters  on  public 
affairs  become  more  interesting  than  ever  :  — 

TO  PHILIP  MELANCHTHON.1 

Bale,  December  10, 1524. 

The  Pope's  advocates  have  been  the7  Pope's  worst 
friends,  and  the  extravagant  Lutherans  have  most 
hurt  Luther.  I  woidd  have  held  aloof  had  it  been 
possible.  I  am  no  judge  of  other  men's  consciences 
or  master  of  other  men's  beliefs.  There  are  actors 
enough  on  the  stage,  and  none  can  say  how  all  will 
end.  I  do  not  object  generally  to  the  evangelical  doc- 
trines, but  there  is  much  in  Luther's  teaching  which  I 
dislike.  He  runs  everything  which  he  touches  into 
extravagance.  True,  Christendom  is  corrupt  and 
needs  the  rod,  but  it  would  be  better,  in  my  opinion, 
if  we  could  have  the  Pope  and  the  princes  on  our  side. 
Campegio  was  gentle  enough,  but  could  do  nothing. 
Clement  was  not  opposed  to  reform,  but  when  I  urged 
that  we  should  meet  him  half-way  nobody  listened. 
The  violent  party  carries  all  before  it.  They  tear  the 
hoods  off  monks  who  might  as  well  have  been  left  in 
their  cells.  Priests  are  married,  and  images  are  torn 
down.  I  would  have  had  religion  purified  without 
destroying  authority.  Licence  need  not  be  given  to 
sin.  Practices  grown  corrupt  by  long  usage  might  be 
gradually  corrected  without  throwing  everything  into 
confusion.  Luther  sees  certain  things  to  be  wrong, 
and  in  flying  blindly  at  them  causes  more  harm  than 
he  cures.  Order  human  things  as  you  will,  there  will 
still  be  faults  enough,  and  there  are  remedies  worse 
than  the  disease.  Is  it  so  great  a  thing  to  have  re- 
moved images  and  changed  the  canon  of  the  mass? 
What  good  is  done  by  telling  foolish  lads  that  the 
Pope  is  Antichrist,  that  confession  carries  the  plague, 
that  they  cannot  do  right  if  tiny  try,  that  good  works 
and  merits  are  a  vain  imagination,  that  free  will  is  an 

1  Ep.  decxiv.,  abridged. 


328  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

illusion,  that  all  things  hold  together  by  necessity, 
and  that  man  can  do  nothing  of  himself?  Such 
things  are  said.  You  will  tell  me  that  Luther  does 
not  say  them  —  that  only  idiots  say  them.  Yes,  but 
Luther  encourages  men  who  say  them,  and  if  I  had  a 
contract  to  make  I  would  rather  deal  with  a  Papist 
than  with  some  evangelicals  that  I  have  known.  It  is 
not  always  safe  to  remove  the  Camarinas  of  this  world, 
and  Plato  says  you  cannot  guide  the  multitude  with- 
out deceiving  them.  Christians  must  not  lie,  but  they 
need  not  tell  the  whole  truth.  Would  that  Luther 
had  tried  as  hard  to  improve  popes  and  princes  as  to 
expose  their  faults.  He  speaks  bitterly  of  me.  He 
may  say  what  he  pleases.  Carlstadt  has  been  here. 
He  has  published  a  book  in  German  maintaining  that 
the  Eucharist  is  only  a  sign.  All  Berne  has  been  in 
an  uproar,  and  the  printer  imprisoned. 

You  are  anxious  that  Luther  shall  answer  me  with 
modei-ation.  Unless  he  writes  in  his  own  style,  the 
world  will  say  we  are  in  connivance.  Do  not  fear 
that  I  shall  oppose  evangelical  truth.  I  left  many 
faults  in  him  unnoticed  lest  I  should  injure  the  Gos- 
pel. I  hope  mankind  will  be  the  better  for  the  acrid 
medicines  with  which  he  has  dosed  them.  Perhaps 
we  needed  a  surgeon  who  would  use  knife  and  cautery. 
Carlstadt  and  he  are  going  so  fast  that  Luther  him- 
self may  come  to  regret  popes  and  bishops.  His 
genius  is  vehement.  We  recognise  in  him  the  Pelidw 
stomachwn  cedere  nescii.  The  devil  is  a  clever  fel- 
low. Success  like  Luther's  might  spoil  the  most 
modest  of  men. 

Erasmus  persuaded  himself  that  there  was  still  hope 
both  from  Rome  and  the  princes.  Clement  sent  him 
two  hundred  florins  and  a  complimentary  diploma  in 
return  for  his  book.  George  of  Saxony  had  com- 
plained that  he  had  not  done  enough,  and  must  go  to 
work  more  thoroughly.     Erasmus  answers  :  — 


Lecture  XVI.  329 

TO   DUKE   GEORGE.1 

Bale,  December  12,  1524. 

When  Luther  first  spoke  the  whole  world  ap- 
plauded, and  your  Highness  among  the  rest.  Divines 
who  are  now  his  bitterest  opponents  were  then  on  his 
side.  Cardinals,  even  monks,  encouraged  him.  He 
had  taken  up  an  excellent  cause.  He  was  attacking 
practices  which  every  honest  man  condemned,  and 
contending  with  a  set  of  harpies,  under  whose  tyranny 
Christendom  was  groaning.  Who  could  then  dream 
how  far  the  movement  would  go  ?  Had  Daniel  fore- 
told it  to  me,  I  woidd  not  have  believed  him.  Luther 
himself  never  expected  to  produce  such  an  effect. 
After  his  Theses  had  come  out  I  persuaded  him  to  go 
no  further.  I  doubted  if  he  had  learning;  enouoh.  I 
was  afraid  of  riots.  I  urged  the  printers  to  set  in 
type  no  more  books  of  his.  He  wrote  to  me.  I  cau- 
tioned him  to  be  moderate.  The  Emperor  was  then 
well  inclined  to  him.  He  had  no  enemies  save  a  few 
monks  and  papal  commissioners,  whose  trade  he  had 
spoilt.  These  people,  fools  that  they  were,  kindled  a 
fire,  and  it  was  then  said  to  be  all  my  fault  —  I  ought 
to  have  silenced  Luther !  I  thought  no  one  could  be 
less  fit.  My  old  enemies  took  up  the  cry,  and  told 
the  Emperor  that  I  was  the  person  to  do  it.  They 
only  wanted  to  throw  me  among  the  wolves.  What 
could  1  have  done  ?  They  required  me  to  revoke  what 
I  had  said  at  first  in  Luther's  favour.  A  pretty  con- 
dition! I  was  to  lie  against  my  own  soul,  make  my- 
self the  hangman  of  a  set  of  prostitute  wretches,  and 
draw  the  hatred  on  myself  of  all  Luther's  supporters. 
I  have  or  had  some  popularity  in  Europe.  I  should 
have  lost  it  all,  and  have  been  left  naked  to  be  torn  in 
pieces  by  the  wild  beasts.  You  say  the  Emperor  and 
the  Pope  will  stand  up  for  me.  How  can  the  Em- 
peror and  the  Pope  help  me  when  they  can  hardly 
help  themselves?  To  call  on  me  to  put  myself  for- 
1  Ep.  dccxviii.,  abridged. 


330  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

ward  is  to  saddle  an  ox  or  overload  a  broken-down 
horse.  I  am  to  sacrifice  myself  for  the  Catholic 
Faith !  It  is  not  for  everyone  to  uphold  the  Ark. 
Even  Jerome,  when  he  attacks  heresy,  becomes  almost 
a  heretic.  I  do  it !  Are  there  no  bishops,  no  college 
dignitaries,  no  hosts  of  divines?  Surely  among  so 
many  there  were  fitter  persons  than  I.  Some  really 
tried.  Great  persons  declared  war.  The  Pope  put 
out  a  Bull,  the  Emperor  put  out  an  edict,  and  there 
were  prisons,  faggots,  and  burnings.  Yet  all  was  in 
vain.  The  mischief  only  grew.  What  could  a  pigmy 
like  Erasmus  do  against  a  champion  who  had  beaten 
so  many  giants?  There  were  men  of  intellect  on 
Luther's  side  to  whom  I  had  looked  up  with  respect. 
I  wondered  what  they  found  in  him  to  impress  them ; 
but  so  it  was.  I  thought  I  must  be  growing  blind.  I 
did  see,  however,  that  the  world  was  besotted  with 
ritual.  Scandalous  monks  were  ensnaring  and  stran- 
gling consciences.  Theology  had  become  sophistry. 
Dogmatism  had  grown  to  madness,  and,  besides,  there 
were  the  unspeakable  priests,  and  bishops,  and  Roman 
officials.  Perhaps  I  thought  that  such  disorders  re- 
quired the  surgeon,  and  that  God  was  using  Luther  as 
he  used  Pharaoh  and  Nebuchadnezzar.  Luther  could 
not  have  succeeded  so  signally  if  God  had  not  been 
with  him,  especially  when  he  had  such  a  crew  of  ad- 
mirers behind  him.  I  considered  that  it  was  a  case 
for  compromise  and  agreement.  Had  I  been  at 
Worms,  I  believe  I  could  have  brought  it  to  that. 
The  Emperor  was  not  unwilling.  Adrian,  Clement, 
Campegio  have  not  been  unwilling.  The  difficulty 
lay  elsewhere.  Luther's  patrons  were  stubborn 
and  would  not  yield  a  step.  The  Catholic  divines 
breathed  only  fire  and  fury.  If  that  was  to  be  the 
way,  there  was  no  need  of  me.  I  conceived,  moreover, 
that  if  it  was  fit  and  right  to  burn  a  man  for  contra- 
dicting articles  decreed  by  the  Church,  there  was  no 
law  to  burn  him  for  holding  mistaken  opinions  on 
other  subjects,  as  long  as  he  defended  them  quietly 


Lecture  XVI.  331 

and  was  otherwise  of  blameless  life.  The  Paris 
divines  do  not  think  on  the  papal  power  as  the  Italian 
divines  think,  but  they  do  not  burn  each  other. 
Thouiists  and  Scotists  differ,  but  they  can  work  in 
the  same  schools.  Stakes  and  prisons  are  vulgar 
remedies.  Two  poor  creatures  have  been  burnt  at 
Brussels,  and  the  whole  city  has  turned  Lutheran.  If 
the  infection  had  touched  only  a  few  it  might  be 
stamped  out,  but  it  has  gone  so  far  that  kings  may 
catch  it.  I  do  not  say  let  it  alone,  but  do  not  make  it 
worse  by  bad  treatment.  Fear  will  alter  nothing,  and 
spasmodic  severity  exasperates.  If  you  put  the 
fire  out  by  force,  it  will  burst  up  again.  I  trust,  I 
hope  that  Luther  will  make  a  few  concessions  and  that 
Pope  and  princes  may  still  consent  to  peace. 

May  Christ's  dove  come  among  us,  or  else  Minerva's 
owl.  Luther  has  administered  an  acrid  dose  to  a 
diseased  body.  God  grant  it  prove  salutary.  Your 
Highness  would  not  have  written  as  you  have  done  if 
you  knew  all  that  I  coidd  tell  you.  The  Pope,  the 
Emperor,  his  brother  Ferdinand,  the  King  of  England 
wrote  to  me  in  a  far  different  tone.  Your  freedom 
does  not  offend  me.  It  rises  only  out  of  your  zeal  for 
the  Faith.  I  risked  the  loss  of  my  best  friends  by 
refusing  to  join  Luther,  but  I  did  not  break  off  my 
connection  with  them  because  they  did  join  him,  and 
Adrian  and  Campegio,  and  the  King  of  England,  and 
the  Cardinal  of  York  all  say  that  I  did  right.  I  vex 
Luther  more  by  continuing  my  intimacy  with  them 
than  I  could  do  with  the  most  violent  abuse. 

The  eager  Catholics  were  disappointed,  of  course, 
with  Erasmus's  "Free  Will."  The  mountain  had 
brought  forth  a  mouse.  If  that  was  all  that  he  could 
do,  he  might  as  well  have  held  his  peace.  The  Prince 
of  Carpi  wrote  to  him  as  Duke  George  bad  done,  tell- 
ing him  he  was  still  under  suspicion  of  favouring 
Luther.     He  answers  :  — 


332  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 


TO    ALBERTUS    PIUS,    PRINCE    OF    CARPI.1 

October  10,  1525. 

When  the  Lutheran  drama  opened,  and  all  the 
world  applauded,  I  advised  my  friends  to  stand  aloof. 
I  thought  it  would  end  in  bloodshed,  and  had  I  taken 
a  part  made  enemies  of  the  Swiss  and  Germans,  who 
had  stood  by  me  in  the  fight  for  learning.  Certain 
theologians  left  no  stone  unturned  to  drive  me  to  join 
a  party  which  they  expected  would  be  condemned. 
The  Lutherans  alternately  courted  me  and  menaced 
me.  For  all  this,  I  do  not  move  a  finger's  breadth 
from  the  teaching  of  the  Roman  Church.  You  would 
think  more  of  this  if  you  knew  the  Germans,  and 
what  a  tempest  I  coidd  raise  if  I  chose  to  lead  the 
fray.  Instead  of  leading,  I  have  stood  naked  and 
unarmed  between  the  javelins  of  two  angry  foes.  It 
is  said  that  Luther  has  borrowed  much  from  me.  He 
denies  it  himself  and  says  I  do  not  understand 
theology.  But  suppose  it  is  so.  Has  he  borrowed 
nothing  from  Augustine  and  St.  Paul  ?  You  ask  me 
why  I  did  not  speak  out  at  once.  Because  I  regarded 
Luther  as  a  good  man,  raised  up  by  Providence  to 
correct  the  depravity  of  the  age.  Whence  have  all 
these  troubles  risen?  From  the  audacious  and  open 
immorality  of  the  priesthood,  from  the  arrogance  of 
the  theologians  and  the  tyranny  of  the  monks.  These 
began  the  battle  by  attacking  learning.  I  did  not  wish 
to  expel  the  old  studies.  I  wished  only  to  give  Greek 
and  Hebrew  a  place  among  them  which  I  thoughkwould 
minister  to  the  glory  of  Christ.  The  monks  turned  the 
question  on  points  of  faith  where  they  thought  they 
would  have  stronger  ground.  You  remember  Reuch- 
lin.  The  conflict  was  ratnmr  between  the  Muses  and 
their  enemies,  when  up  sprang  Luther,  and  the  object 
thenceforward  was  to  entangle  the  friends  of  litera- 
ture in  the  Lutheran  business  so  as  to  destroy  both 
them  and  him  together.     So  thinars  have  gone  on  ever 

1  Ep.  ccexxxiii.,  second  series. 


Lecture  XVI.  333 

since,  the  clamour  growing  louder  and  the  spirit  of 
the  contest  worse.  This  is  the  naked  fact.  If  what  I 
hear  is  true,  I  must  call  on  your  highness  to  check 
the  slanders  spread  about  me.  If  I  am  mistaken,  you 
will  pardon  my  complaints. 

The  English  friends  of  Erasmus  were  more  eager 
than  even  the  German  princes  that  he  should  strike 
again  at  Luther,  and  strike  in  earnest.  Beyond  all 
others,  Sir  Thomas  More,  who  wished  him  to  silence 
for  ever  the  charge  of  having  been  Luther's  confeder- 
ate. More  had  understood  and  valued  the  tract  upon 
"  Free  Will."  But  it  was  not  enough.  He  must 
enlarge  his  reply  and  make  a  final  end  of  Luther.  He 
must  do  it.  No  excuse  would  serve  him  for  deserting; 
the  cause  of  God. 

SIR   T.    MORE  TO  ERASMUS.1 

Greenwich,  December  18, 1525. 
Do  it  (More  said),  you  have  nothing  to  fear.  Had 
the  Lutherans  meant  to  try  conclusions  with  you  in 
earnest,  they  would  have  done  it  when  your  first  part 
appeared.  You  have  drawn  a  picture  there  of  a  beast 
and  the  enemy  of  souls.  You  have  dragged  up  the 
smoky  demon  of  Tartarus  like  another  Cerberus  out 
of  hell,  and  have  shown  him  in  visible  form.  You 
cannot  increase  your  danger  by  following  up  your 
argument.  Go  on,  therefore.  Luther  himself  is  not 
so  cowardly  as  to  hope,  or  so  wicked  as  to  wish,  that 
you  should  be  silent.  I  cannot  say  how  foolish  and 
inflated  I  think  his  letter  to  you.  He  knows  well 
how  the  wretched  glosses  with  which  he  has  darkened 
Scripture  turn  to  ice  at  your  touch.  They  were  cold 
enough  already.  If  for  some  inexplicable  reason  you 
cannot  make  a  public  rejoinder,  at  least  set  down  your 
private  thoughts  in  writing  and  send  tin:  MS.  to  me. 
The  Bishop  of  London  and  I  will  take  charge  of  it. 

1  Ep.  cccxxxiv.,  second  series,  abridged. 


334  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Alas,  Erasmus  could  uot  do  it.  His  private 
thought,  which  indeed  he  had  spoken  freely  enough, 
was  that,  in  the  negative  part  of  his  teaching,  Luther 
was  right,  and  he  would  not  be  found  fighting  against 
God.  He  poured  out  his  sorrows  and  his  perplexities 
in  a  letter  to  the  Dominican  Faber,  who,  like  More, 
had  been  urging  him  to  write  more  fully. 

TO    FABER.1 

You  see  how  fiercely  Luther  strikes  at  me,  moderate 
though  I  was.  What  would  he  have  said  had  I  pro- 
voked him  in  earnest?  He  means  his  book  to  live 
with  my  crimes  embalmed  in  it.  Ten  editions  of  his 
reply  have  been  published  already.  The  great  men 
in  the  Church  are  afraid  to  touch  him,  and  you  want 
poor  me  to  do  it  again,  me  who  am  too  weak  to  make 
myself  feared,  and  too  little  of  a  saint  in  my  life  not 
to  dread  what  may  be  said  of  me.  Luther  pretends 
to  wish  to  be  friendly,  yet  he  calls  me  another  Lucian, 
says  that  I  do  not  believe  in  God,  or  believe,  like  Epi- 
curus, that  God  has  no  care  for  man.  He  accuses  me 
of  laughing  at  the  Bible  and  of  being  an  enemy  to 
Christianity,  and  yet  expects  me  to  thank  him  for  his 
gentle  handling.  Faction  spares  none,  and  calumny 
sticks  and  cannot  be  washed  off.  The  grosser  the 
charge  the  more  credit  it  receives.  I  wrote  my  book 
to  please  the  princes  and  to  show  that  I  was  not  a  Lu- 
theran, but  when  I  pointed  out  how  the  mischief  was 
to  be  met  which  the  monks  and  theologians  were  doing, 
no  one  listened.  I  wrote  to  Pope  Adrian.  I  suppose 
my  letter  did  not  please  him,  for  he  took  no  notice  of 
it,  and  now  you  see  what  has  come.  In  France  they 
are  at  work  with  gibbet  and  dungeon.  It  won't  an- 
swer. The  other  side  cry  "  Liberty  !  "  and  have  the 
printers  with  them,  while  the  Church  has  only  monks, 
Epicurean  priests,  and  rabid  Divines.  The  nobles 
favour  the  movement  with  an  eye  to  the  churchmen's 
lands  and  offices.    The  princes  like  to  fish  in  troubled 

1  Ep.  dccexliii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XVI.  335 

waters  and  plunder  the  wrecks  which  drive  ashore. 
Go  on  with  your  stakes  and  prisons  and  you  will  have 
universal  chaos.  As  yet  we  are  only  at  the  beginning. 
The  Pope  has  ordered  the  Italians  to  be  quiet.  He  is 
wise.  They  will  look  on  and  chuckle  while  we  cut 
each  other's  throats.  Why  cannot  we  be  wise  too  ? 
We  are  all  embarked  in  the  same  ship.  If  the  ship 
sinks,  we  shall  sink  with  it,  and  the  mischief  is  spread 
too  widely  to  be  cured  by  ordinary  remedies.  The 
princes,  you  say,  want  my  opinion.  They  shall  have 
it  if  they  wish,  but  it  must  be  kept  secret.  Ferocious 
writing-  ought  to  be  checked  on  both  sides.  One  is  as 
bad  as  the  other.  Preachers  and  orators  should  be 
silenced,  and  quiet  men  put  in  their  places  who  will 
leave  alone  dogmas  and  teach  piety  and  morals.  The 
Catholics  are  now  persecuting  innocent  men  and  are 
driving  into  Luther's  camp  those  whom  they  should 
most  wish  to  attract.  Rage  if  you  will  against  rebel- 
lion, but  do  not  hurt  those  who  have  done  no  harm. 
Do  not  close  the  schools,  but  see  that  they  have  fit 
masters.  The  Lutherans  are  strong  in  the  towns. 
Bid  them  tolerate  their  opponents.  Leave  each  man 
to  his  own  conscience  and  put  down  riots.  Let 
Catholics  meanwhile  reform  the  abuses  which  have 
provoked  the  revolt,  and  leave  the  rest  to  a  general 
council.  Stir  no  more  hornets'  nests,  unless  you  wish 
to  ruin  Erasmus. 

One  more  curious  letter,  without  date  or  address, 
belongs  to  the  present  period,  and  was  probably  meant 
for  the  Emperor's  eye. 

TO 1 


The  two  parties  are  dragging  at  the  opposite  ends 
of  a  rope.  When  it  breaks  they  will  both  fall  on  their 
backs.  The  reformers  turn  the  images  out  of  the 
churches,  which  originally  were  useful  and  ornamental. 
They  might  have  been  content  to  forbid  the  worship 
of  images  and  to  have  removed    only   the   superflu- 

1  Ep.  clxii.,  second  series,  abridged. 


336  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

ous.  They  will  have  no  more  priests.  It  would  be 
better  to  have  priests  of  learning  and  piety,  and 
to  provide  that  orders  are  not  hastily  entered  into. 
There  would  be  fewer  of  them,  but  better  three  good 
than  three  hundred  bad.  They  do  not  like  so  much 
ritual.  True,  but  it  would  be  enough  to  abolish  the 
absurd.  Debauched  priests  who  do  nothing  but  mum- 
ble masses  are  generally  hated.  Do  away  with  these, 
hirelings,  and  allow  but  one  celebration  a  day  in  the 
churches.  Indulgences,  with  which  the  monks  so 
long  fooled  the  world  with  the  connivance  of  the  theo- 
logians, are  now  exploded.  Well,  then,  let  those 
who  have  no  faith  in  saints'  merits  pray  to  Father, 
Son  and  Holy  Ghost,  imitate  Christ  in  their  lives, 
and  leave  those  alone  who  do  believe  in  saints.  If 
the  saints  do  not  hear  them,  Christ  may  hear  them. 
Confession  is  an  ancient  custom.  Let  those  who  deny 
that  it  is  a  sacrament  observe  it  till  the  Church  decides 
otherwise.  No  great  harm  can  come  of  confession 
so  long  as  men  confess  only  their  own  mortal  sins. 
Let  men  think  as  they  please  of  purgatory,  without 
quarrelling  with  others  who  do  not  think  as  they 
do.  Theologians  may  argue  about  free  will  in  the 
Sorbonne.  Laymen  need  not  puzzle  themselves  with 
conundrums.  Whether  works  justify  or  faith  justifies 
matters  little,  since  all  allow  that  faith  will  not  save 
without  works.  In  Baptism  let  the  old  rule  be  kept. 
Parents  may  perhaps  be  left  to  decide  whether  it  shall 
be  administei'ed  in  infancy  or  delayed  to  maturity. 
Anabaptists  must  not  be  tolerated.  The  Apostles 
bade  their  people  obey  the  magistrates,  though  the 
magistrates  were  heathens.  Anabaptists  will  not 
obey  even  Christian  princes.  Community  of  goods 
is  a  chimera.  Charity  is  a  duty,  but  property  must 
be  upheld.  As  to  the  Eucharist,  let  the  old  opinion 
stand  till  a  council  has  proved  a  new  revelation. 
The  Eucharist  is  only  adored  so  far  as  Christ  is 
supposed  to  be  present  there  as  God.  The  human 
nature  is  not  adored,  but  the  Divine  Nature,  which 
is    Omnipresent.      The  thing  to  be    corrected  is  the 


Lecture  XVI.  337 

abuse  of  the  administration.  In  primitive  times  the 
Eucharist  was  not  carried  about  by  priests  on  horse- 
back, or  exhibited  to  be  made  a  jest  of.  In  Eng- 
land at  this  present  time  there  is  neither  house  nor 
tavern,  I  had  almost  said  brothel,  where  the  sacrifice 
is  not  offered  and  money  paid  for  it.1  For  the  rest, 
let  there  be  moderation  in  all  things,  and  then  we 
may  hope  for  peace.  The  experiment  has  been  tried 
with  good  success  in  the  Duchy  of  Cleves.  It  will 
succeed  everywhere  if  the  clergy  will  only  consent. 

This  advice  was  probably  meant,  as  I  said,  for 
Charles  V.,  who  had  often  pressed  for  Erasmus's  opin- 
ion. It  corresponded  entirely  with  Charles's  own  pri- 
vate views.  Unfortunately,  his  hands  were  tied  by 
the  necessity  of  pleasing  Spaniards,  Italians,  bigots  of 
all  kinds  throughout  his  dominions.  Least  of  all 
could  he  afford  to  offend  his  own  subjects  when  the 
French  had  invaded  Lombardy  and  were  threatening 
Naples,  with  the  Pope  in  secret  alliance  with  them. 
The  Emperor's  own  sentiments  were  clearly  expressed 
to  Erasmus  in  a  letter  from  Gattinarius,  the  Imperial 
secretary.2  Erasmus  had  told  him  that  he  would  die 
happy  if  he  could  see  the  storm  composed.  Gattina- 
rius answered  that  if  the  Pope  and  the  other  princes 
were  as  well  disposed  as  his  master,  Erasmus  would 
not  wish  in  vain.  As  things  were,  he  still  did  not 
despair  that  the  schism  might  be  healed,  and  the 
vicious  practices  in  the  Church  which  had  led  to  it 
might  be  looked  into  and  reformed. 

1  "  Nunc  in  Alalia  nulla  est  domiis,  nulla  caupona,  pene  dixeram  lu- 
panar,  ulii  mm  sacrificetur." 

2  February  10,  1527.     Ep.  dcecl. 


LECTURE  XVII. 

Wilder  and  wilder  grew  the  world,  as  if  the  bags 
of  iEolus  had  been  untied.  I  can  but  touch  the  out- 
side of  the  political  history.  Francis  I.  had  gone 
careering  into  Lombardy,  and  had  got  himself  taken 
prisoner  at  Pavia,  all  lost  but  honour.  France,  Eng- 
land, and  the  Pope,  fearing  that  Charles  would  restore 
the  throne  of  the  Caesars,  or  perhaps  make  himself 
Pope  also  —  for  that  was  thought  a  possibility  — 
made  a  frightened  league  together :  Henry  VIII.  to 
be  the  special  protector  of  the  Apostolic  See,  the  Pope 
in  turn  to  do  him  a  small  service,  relieve  him  of  his 
old  Spanish  wife,  and  let  him  marry  a  younger  woman 
to  raise  up  children  to  succeed  him.  The  King's 
request  was  not  in  itself  unreasonable.  Henry  had 
married  his  brother's  widow  under  a  dispensation  of 
doubtful  legality.  The  legitimacy  of  the  Princess 
Mary  had  been  challenged,  and  if  he  died  without  a 
son  there  would  be  a  disputed  succession  and  a  fresh 
War  of  the  Roses.  Catherine  was  past  child-bearing. 
It  was  just  one  of  those  situations  in  which  the  dis- 
pensing powers  of  the  Pope  might  be  usefully  exerted, 
and  Clement,  so  far  as  he  was  himself  concerned, 
would  have  made  no  objection  at  all.  The  Emperor, 
too,  it  is  likely,  in  the  distracted  state  of  Europe, 
would  have  hesitated  in  raising  obstacles  to  a  natural 
demand,  and  flinging  a  fresh  poisoned  ingredient  into 
the  witches'  caldron ;  but  Catherine's  consent  was 
needed  if  there  was  to  be  an  amicable  separation,  and 


Lecture  XVII.  339 

Catherine  would  not  give  it,  and  Charles,  like  a  gen- 
tleman as  he  was,  found  himself  obliged,  against  his 
own  interest,  to  support  his  aunt. 

The  divorce  of  Catherine  was  at  first  but  a  small 
matter,  though  it  grew  to  be  a  large  one.  Political 
events  went  their  way,  and,  if  Charles  wished  to  reform 
the  Church  of  Eome,  were  opening  the  road  for  him. 
Clement,  as  an  Italian  prince,  became  the  ally  of 
France,  and  at  war  with  Charles. 

Charles's  army,  a  motley  of  Catholic  Spaniards  and 
Lutheran  landknechts,  stormed  Rome,  caged  the  Pope 
in  St.  Angelo,  sacked  convents,  outraged  nuns,  and 
carried  cardinals  in  mock  procession  round  the  sacred 
city,  naked  on  the  backs  of  asses.  Castilian  and  Ger- 
man had  plundered  churches  side  by  side,  carried  off 
the  consecrated  plate  equally  careless  of  sacrilege, 
while  the  unfortunate  head  of  Christendom  looked  on 
helpless  from  the  battlements  of  his  prison.  It  seemed 
as  if  Charles  had  but  to  stretch  out  his  hand,  place 
the  papal  crown  in  commission,  if  he  did  not  take  it 
himself,  and  reform  with  sovereign  power  the  abuses 
which  he  had  acknowledged  and  deplored.  So,  and 
only  so,  he  could  have  restored  peace  to  Germany  and 
saved  the  unity  of  Christendom,  in  which  the  rents 
were  each  day  growing  wider,  for  behind  Luther  had 
come  Carlstadt  and  Zwingle,  going  where  Luther 
could  not  follow,  denying  the  sacraments,  denying  the 
Real  Presence  in  the  Eucharist,  breaking  into  Anabap- 
tism  and  social  anarchy  ;  while  behind  Zwingle,  again, 
was  rising  the  keen,  clear,  powerful  Calvin,  carrying 
the  Swiss  and  French  reformers  along  with  him. 

Erasmus  was  still  at  Bale  observing  the  gathering 
whirlwinds,  his  own  worst  fears  far  exceeded  by  the 
reality,  determined  for  his  own  part  to  throw  no  fresh 
fuel  on  the  flames,  and  to  hold  himself  clear  from  con- 


340  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

nection  with  all  extreme  factions  —  Lutheran,  Zwin- 
glian,  or  Catholic.  Charles,  it  seems,  continued  to 
consult  him  indirectly,  through  secretaries  or  other 
correspondents,  as  to  what  the  nature  of  Church  au- 
thority really  was,  evidently  as  if  he  was  considering 
in  what  way  it  could  best  be  dealt  with.  To  one  of 
such  inquiries  Erasmus  answers : 1  — 

I  have  always  observed  my  allegiance  to  the  Church, 
but  I  distinguish  between  the  Church's  decrees ;  some 
are  canons  of  councils,  some  are  papal  rescripts,  some 
decisions  of  particular  bishops,  some  like  plebiscites, 
some  temporary  and  liable  to  recall.  When  the  pres- 
ent storm  began  I  thought  it  would  be  enough  to 
change  a  few  constitutions.  But  corruption  under  the 
name  of  religion  has  gone  so  far  as  almost  to  extin- 
guish the  Christian  faith.  Neither  party  will  yield. 
Many  cry  for  coercion  ;  such  a  method  might  succeed 
for  a  time,  but  if  it  succeeded  permanently  there 
would  still  be  numerous  and  uneasy  consciences.  I 
do  not  say  I  am  neutral ;  I  mean  that  I  am  not  bound 
to  either  side.  The  question  is  not  of  opinions,  but  of 
morals  and  character,  and  these  are  worst  among  the 
loudest  of  the  Church's  champions.  Church  author- 
ity, however,  may  be  preserved  with  a  few  altera- 
tions. I  would  give  the  cup  to  the  laity.  I  would 
not  have  priests  marry  or  monks  abandon  their  vows 
without  their  bishop's  conseut.  Boys  and  girls,  how- 
ever, who  have  been  tempted  into  religious  houses 
ought  to  be  set  free,  as  having  been  taken  in  by  fraud. 
It  would  be  well  if  priests  and  monks  could  be  chaste ; 
but  the  age  is  corrupt,  and  of  two  evils  we  must 
choose  the  least.  The  licence  of  which  you  complain 
has  found  no  encouragement  from  me  ;  I  have  checked 
it  always  when  I  could.  You  are  afraid  of  Paganism  ; 
my  fear  is  of  Judaism,  which  I  see  everywhere.  Any- 
way, you  may  assure  the  Emperor  that  from  me  he 
has  nothing  to  fear. 

Ep.  dcccxlviii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XVII.  341 

The  capture  of  Rome  might  have  been  expected  to 
have  pleased  Erasmus,  as  giving  the  Emperor  a  free 
hand.  The  world  thought  that  the  breach  between 
the  Empire  and  the  Papacy  was  now  final  and  irrep- 
arable. Erasmus  was  keener-sighted  than  his  con- 
temporaries. His  hope  had  been  to  see  Charles  and 
Clement  work  together  as  friends  and  equals.  He 
was  afraid  that  the  Emperor  would  now  use  and  main- 
tain the  Pope  for  his  own  political  objects,  and  would 
be  led  away  with  secular  ambition,  in  which  the  Pope 
would  be  his  creature.  His  anxiety  appears  in  a  let- 
ter to  Warham. 

TO    ARCHBISHOP   WARHAM.1 

Revolution  is  in  the  air.  I  fear  bloodshed,  for  the 
roots  have  gone  deep.  No  one  who  has  not  seen  Ger- 
many can  believe  in  what  condition  we  are.  I  cannot 
leave  the  Church  and  join  the  reformers.  But  the 
people  are  all  on  their  side,  in  consequence  of  the 
raging  of  the  monks,  who  are  working  their  own  ruin. 
At  Rome  all  is  confusion.  Letters  cannot  enter.  It 
is  supposed  that  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor  will  be 
reconciled,  and  that  the  Pope  will  take  the  Emperor's 
side.  In  that  case  there  will  be  no  peace.  The  Pope 
ought  to  be  indifferent. 

In  these  later  anxious  years  we  have  lost  sight  of 
the  old  brilliant  witty  Erasmus.  The  times  had  grown 
serious,  and  his  humour  when  it  showed  was  bitter, 
but  the  bright  nature  was  still  there,  and  now  and 
then  a  gleam  breaks  out  among  the  clouds.  The  let- 
ter to  "Warham  was  sent  by  the  hand  of  a  disciple, 
Nicholas  Caun,  who  was  paying  England  a  visit. 
Erasmus  gave  him  an  introduction  to  the  Archbishop, 
and  a  few  hints  to  Cann  himself. 

1  Ep.  dccclxx. 


342  Life,  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

TO   NICHOLAS    CANN.1 

May  17,  1527. 

You  will  enjoy  your  visit.  You  will  meet  many  of 
the  English  nobles  and  men  of  learning.  They  will 
be  infinitely  kind  to  you,  but  be  careful  not  to  pre- 
sume upon  it :  when  they  condescend,  be  you  modest. 
Great  men  do  not  always  mean  what  their  faces  pro- 
mise, so  treat  them  reverendly,  as  if  they  were  gods. 
They  are  generous  and  will  offer  you  presents,  but 
recollect  the  proverb,  Not  everything  everywhere  and 
from  everyone.  Accept  gratefully  what  real  friends 
give  you.  To  mere  acquaintances  excuse  yourself 
lightly ;  more  art  is  needed  in  refusing  graciously 
than  in  receiving.  An  awkward  rejection  often  makes 
enemies.  Imitate  the  polypus  and  you  have  no  diffi- 
culties. Put  out  your  head,  give  your  right  hand,  and 
yield  the  wall ;  smile  on  as  many  as  you  please,  but 
trust  only  those  you  know,  and  be  specially  careful  to 
find  no  fault  with  English  things  or  customs.  They 
are  proud  of  their  country,  as  well  they  may  be. 

So  much  for  the  character  of  our  ancestors,  which 
has  altered  less  than  one  might  have  expected.  Eras- 
mus had  other  things  to  make  him  anxious,  and  was 
soon  absorbed  again  in  the  German  confusions.  He 
seems  to  have  been  specially  confidential  with  Duke 
George  of  Saxony. 

TO   DUKE   GEORGE.2 

September  2,  1521. 

Luther  amazes  me.  If  the  spirit  which  is  in  him 
be  an  evil  one,  no  more  fatal  monster  was  ever  born. 
If  it  be  a  good  spirit,  much  of  the  fruit  of  the  Gospel 
is  wanting  in  him.  If  a  mixed  one,  how  can  two 
spirits  so  strong  exist  in  the  same  person?  Intoler- 
able corruptions  have  crept  into  Christian  life  which 
custom  makes  appear  like  virtues,  and  there  are  other 

1  Ep.  dccclxviii. 

2  Ep.  dcccxci.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XVII.  343 

changes  besides  which  wise  men  would  gladly  see  if 
they  can  be  had  without  a  convulsion.  This  I  know 
to  be  the  opinion  of  the  Emperor.  But  nothing  will 
satisfy  Luther,  and  his  party  is  so  divided,  and  their 
gospel  is  generating  so  much  licence,  that  it  may  fall 
to  pieces,  even  if  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor  combine. 
The  hope  is  that  the  Princes  may  have  influence 
enough  to  keep  the  Lutherans  within  bounds,  or  a 
worse  fire  may  break  out  on  the  other  side  through 
those  wretched  monks  and  divines. 

The  folly  of  the  monks  and  theologians  made  the 
real  danger.  On  the  same  day  he  writes  to  another 
correspondent : 1  — 

Frightful  storms  spring  from  small  beginnings. 
The  Lutheran  cyclone  rose  out  of  a  trifle.  The 
Dominicans  paraded  their  indulgences  too  ostenta- 
tiously. Luther  objected.  The  Dominicans  set  up  a 
clamour.  I  tried  to  stop  them,  but  could  not  do  it, 
and  you  see  the  result.  The  Pope  should  have  left 
matters  alone.  No  one  dreads  the  monks  more  than 
the  Pope  does,  and  none  treat  the  Pope  with  more 
contempt  than  the  monks  do  when  it  suits  their 
purpose. 

Invariably  Erasmus  speaks  of  the  monks  as  the 
cause  of  all  that  had  happened.  His  especial  bitter- 
ness was  due,  perhaps,  to  his  early  experience  ;  and 
undoubtedly  they  returned  his  hatred.  They  had 
been  forbidden  to  abuse  him  in  their  pulpits.  They 
were  working  underground  to  prevent  the  circulation 
of  his  books  and  induce  the  Church  to  censure  them. 
Luther's  writings,  being  chiefly  in  German,  were  un- 
read save  where  German  was  spoken.  The  writings 
of  Erasmus  had  spread  over  Europe.  His  contro- 
versy with  Luther  had  not  earned  his  pardon.  He 
was  a  subject  of  the  Spanish  crown ;  a  party  favour- 

1  Ep.  dcccxciv. 


344  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

able  to  liim  had  begun  to  grow  in  the  Peninsula, 
which  roused  the  regulars  there  to  fury.  The  sacred 
soil  of  Spain  should  at  least  be  kept  free  from  heresy. 
Juan  Maldonado  writes  to  him  from  Burgos : 1  — 

September  1,  1527. 

The  theologians  here  are  working  with  the  monks, 
and  will  be  counted  the  only  wise  ones.  They  impose 
on  noble  ladies  with  their  pretence  of  holiness.  They 
tell  them  that  they  cannot  have  their  sins  pardoned 
unless  they  go  on  their  knees  to  some  sophisticated 
friar  —  only  friars,  they  say,  can  distinguish  the 
qualities  of  sins.  Not  a  man,  from  the  meanest  pot- 
boy to  the  Emperor,  will  they  count  a  Christian  un- 
less he  takes  a  monk  for  a  director,  and  many  a  pretty 
tale  is  told  by  poor  women  of  the  shameless  doings  of 
these  philosophasters.  They  hate  you,  but  do  not  you 
be  disturbed.  You  have  torn  the  masks  from  their 
faces,  and  shown  them  to  the  world  as  they  are.  I 
need  not  say  what  curses  they  have  imprecated  on 
you.  They  are  now  appealing  to  the  bishops  and 
magistrates  to  prohibit  the  sale  of  your  books.  The 
hooded  masters  know  well  enough  the  difference  be- 
tween your  teaching  and  their  hypocrisy.  They  know 
that  if  your  writings  are  read  there  will  be  an  end  of 
them.  But  their  abuse  does  not  hurt  you.  We  love 
you  the  better  for  it.  A  Spanish  translation  of  the 
"  Colloquies "  is  in  the  hands  of  every  man  and 
woman. 

The  Emperor  was  now  himself  in  Spain.  The 
Spanish  authorities  appealed  to  him  to  support  them. 
He  had  so  long  corresponded  with  Erasmus  on  the 
gi-eat  questions  of  the  day,  had  seemed  so  entirely  to 
agree  with  him,  had  so  peremptorily  silenced  the 
attacks  upon  him  in  the  Low  Countries,  that  Eras- 
mus looked  confidently  for  a  continuance  of  his  coun- 
tenance ;  but  it  was  not  without  reason  that  Erasmus 
1  Ep.  eccxxxviii.,  second  series,  abridged. 


Lecture  XVII.  345 

had  been  alarmed  at  the  possible  consequences  of  the 
capture  of  Kome  in  a  change  of  attitude  on  Charles's 
part.  The  Emperor  did,  indeed,  order  the  Spanish 
monks  to  hold  their  tongues  ;  but  there  were  symptoms 
which  Erasmus's  friends  did  not  like,  and  the  monks 
were  dangerous. 

Your  enemies  (wrote  another  of  these  friends)  are 
now  mute,  and  dare  not  crow  even  on  their  own 
dunghills.  But  they  mutter  still  in  private,  and  I 
fear  the  beast  with  700  heads  may  win  in  the  end. 
You,  though  long  may  you  live,  must  die  at  last ; 
but  a  religious  order  never  dies.  It  has  good  men 
in  it  as  well  as  bad,  but  good  and  bad  alike  stand  by 
their  profession,  and  the  worse  part  drags  the  better 
after  it. 

A  religious  order  never  dies.  Charles  V.  could 
not  just  then  afford  to  quarrel  with  the  leaders  of 
the  Church  in  Spain.  It  was  necessary  for  him  to 
pacify  the  suspicions  which  had  risen  out  of  the  im- 
prisonment of  the  Pope,  and  though  he  refused  to 
allow  Erasmus's  writings  to  be  suppressed,  he  could 
not  resist  a  demand  that  those  writings  should  be  ex- 
amined  by  the  Inquisition.  Erasmus  had  appealed 
to  him.  He  replied  in  a  curious  letter,  half  an 
apology,  though  in  terms  of  the  utmost  personal 
esteem. 

CHARLES   V.   TO   ERASMUS.1 

Bukgos,  December  13,  1527. 
Dear  and  Honoured  Sir,  —  Two  tilings  make  your 
letter  welcome  to  me.  The  receipt  of  any  communi- 
cation from  a  person  whom  1  regard  with  so  much 
affection  is  itself  a  pleasure,  and  your  news  that  the 
Lutheran  fever  is  abating  gratifies  me  exceedingly. 
The  whole  Church  of  Christ  is  your  debtor  as  much 
as  I  am.     You  have  done  for  it  what  emperors,  popes, 

1  Ep.  dooccxv.,  abridged. 


34G  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

princes,  and  academies  have  tried  in  vain  to  do.  I 
congratulate  you  from  my  heart.  You  must  now 
complete  the  work  which  you  have  begun  so  success- 
fully, and  you  may  rely  on  all  possible  support  from 
me.  I  am  sorry  to  find  you  complain  of  the  treat- 
ment which  your  writings  meet  with  here.  You 
appear  to  distrust  our  goodwill,  and  to  fear  that  the 
Erasmus  whose  Christian  character  it  so  well  known 
to  the  world  may  be  unfairly  dealt  with.  It  is  true 
that  we  have  allowed  your  works  to  be  examined,  but 
in  this  you  have  no  reason  for  alarm.  Human  errors 
may  be  discovered  in  them,  but  the  worst  that  can  be- 
fall you  will  be  an  affectionate  admonition.  You  will 
then  be  able  to  correct  or  explain,  and  Christ's  little 
ones  will  not  be  offended.  You  will  establish  your 
immortal  reputation,  and  shut  the  mouths  of  your 
detractors  ;  or  it  may  be  that  no  faults  at  all  will  be 
detected,  and  your  honour  will  bo.  yet  more  effectually 
vindicated.  Take  courage,  therefore.  Be  assured 
that  I  shall  never  cease  to  respect  and  esteem  you.  I 
do  my  best  for  the  commonwealth.  My  work  must 
speak  for  me  now  and  hereafter.  Remember  me  in 
your  prayers. 

This  letter,  gracious  though  it  was,  did  not  satisfy 
Erasmus.  He  knew  that  in  all  which  he  had  written 
about  the  corruption  of  the  Church  the  Emperor 
agreed  with  him.  But  his  mind  had  misgiven  him 
from  the  moment  when  he  heard  of  the  capture  of 
Rome.  Two  alternatives,  in  fact,  then  lay  before 
Charles  :  either  to  sequester  the  Pope  and  put  him- 
self at  the  head  of  Reform  —  the  course  which  some, 
at  least,  of  the  secular  statesmen  of  Spain  and  Italy 
urgently  recommended,  or  to  make  up  his  quarrel  with 
Clement,  with  a  show  of  generosity,  and  support  his 
failing  authority.  To  take  up  reform  would  mean  a 
quarrel  with  the  Church,  which  was  still  dangerously 
powerful  in   every   part  of   his  personal  dominions. 


Lecture  XVII.  347 

France  and  England  were  already  arming  in  the 
Pope's  defence.  The  Pope  would  throw  himself  into 
their  arms,  divorce  Catherine  —  a  small  matter,  but 
one  which  touched  Charles's  honour.  The  Turks  had 
taken  Rhodes,  had  overrun  Hungary,  killed  the  Em- 
peror's brother-in-law,  and  were  threatening  Vienna. 
He  would  have  to  face  a  desperate  war,  with  no  allies 
but  the  Germans,  who  were  rushing  into  a  spiritual 
revolution  which  would  then  be  beyond  control.  He 
could  not  do  it.  He  must  detach  the  Pope  from 
Francis  and  Henry,  secure  the  support  of  the  Church, 
and  leave  reform  till  the  sky  brightened  again.  Ana- 
baptism  had  spread  over  Germany.  It  was  now  pass- 
ing into  his  own  Netherlands,  carrying  anarchy  and 
insurrection  along  with  it.  He  must  rally  all  the 
forces  of  Conservatism,- recover  the  confidence  of  the 
leading  Churchmen,  and  deserve  it  by  showing  the 
agitators  that  they  had  nothing  to  hope  from  him. 
He  made  peace  with  Clement,  a  condition  of  it  being 
that  Henry  VIII.  should  have  no  divorce  without 
his  own  consent.  In  return  he  issued  an  edict  for 
the  suppression  of  spiritual  rebellion  severe  enough 
even  to  content  the  monks  themselves,  whose  business 
it  was  to  be  to  see  the  edict  executed.  Erasmus  was 
dismayed.  He  had  long  satisfied  himself  that  fire 
and  sword  would  never  answer,  and  never  believed 
the  Emperor  would  try  it.  He  was  not  alarmed  for 
himself  ;  he  was  alarmed  for  Christendom.  A  letter 
to  Duke  George  shows  what  he  was  feeling  :  — 

TO    DUKE   GEORGE.1 

The  Emperor  and  his  brother  are  for  trying  sever- 
ity, and  encouraging  those  who  mistake  their  own 
passions  for  devotion  to  the  Gospel.  Severity  will  do 
no  good.     The  innocent  will  suiter.     The  threatened 

1  Ep.  dccec.\i\. 


348  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

confiscation  will  be  an  excuse  for  plunder;  all  will 
be  in  danger  who  have  anything  to  lose.  Beggars 
and  rogues  will  fatten,  and  there  will  be  universal 
confusion.  Knife  and  cautery  are  bad  instruments 
when  the  whole  frame  is  sick.  If  the  princes  could 
but  combine  and  restrain  both  parties  with  modera- 
tion and  authority  there  might  still  be  hope  for 
peace. 

An  extremely  interesting  letter  follows  to  the  Elec- 
tor Herman,  Archbishop  of  Cologne,  who  afterwards 
joined  the  Lutherans,  and  was  deposed  for  it : 1  — 

March  18,  1528. 
Is  there  not  misery  enough  in  the  world  already, 
that  the  jealousies  and  passions  of  sovereigns  must  be 
making  it  worse  ?  The  disorder  grows  daily,  and 
unless  some  god  appears  ex  machina  and  ends  the 
tragedy,  chaos  lies  straight  ahead.  I  am  not  hopeless. 
The  Lord,  in  whose  hands  are  the  hearts  of  kings, 
may  yet  show  these  two  princes  (Charles  and  Fran- 
cis) that  a  conquest  over  themselves  is  more  glorious 
than  a  victory  in  the  field.  Gentleness  is  a  stronger 
bond  than  force,  and  moral  authority  goes  further 
than  Imperial  edicts.  Peace  may  not  be  possible,  but 
there  might  be  a  truce  for  a  term  of  years,  and  a 
breathing-time.  I  fear  now  a  Cadmean  victory,  as 
fatal  to  the  victors  as  to  the  vanquished,  and  all  that 
I  can  do  is  to  pray.  Often,  very  often,  I  have  ivrged 
the  Emperor  to  peace.  He  says  in  his  last  letter  to 
me  :  "  I  have  done  the  best  I  can  ;  now  and  hereafter 
my  work  must  speak  for  me."  This  does  not  sound 
like  peace.  A  great  war  means  infinite  horror  and 
wretchedness,  and  the  wild  opinions  now  spread- 
ing, which  steal  our  peace  of  mind,  are  worse  than 
war.  The  factions  in  Germany  are  more  fatal  than 
even  the  quarrels  of  kings,  and  I  know  not  how  it  is, 
none  hurt  a  good  cause  worse  than  those  who  think 
they  are  defending  it.     The  rival  parties  drag  at  the 

1  Ep.  dccccxlv.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XVII.  349 

two  ends  of  a  rope  ;  when  the  rope  breaks  both  go  to 
the  ground.  What  is  the  use  of  all  these  question- 
ings and  definings  and  dogmatisings  ?  Let  schoolmen 
argue  if  they  so  please.  It  is  enough  for  common 
people  if  they  are  taught  how  to  rule  their  own  con- 
duct. The  mass  has  been  made  a  trade  for  illiterate 
and  sordid  priests,  and  a  contrivance  to  quiet  the  con- 
sciences of  reprobates.  So  the  cry  is  raised,  "  Abolish 
the  mass,  put  it  away,  make  an  end  of  it."  Is  there 
no  middle  course?  Cannot  the  mass  be  purified? 
Saint-worship  has  been  carried  so  far  that  Christ  has 
been  forgotten.  Therefore,  respect  for  saints  is  idol- 
atry, and  orders  founded  in  their  names  must  be  dis- 
solved. Why  so  violent  a  remedy?  Too  much  has 
been  made  of  rituals  and  vestments,  but  we  might 
save,  if  we  would,  the  useful  part  of  such  things.  Con- 
fession has  been  abused,  but  it  could  be  regulated  more 
strictly.  We  might  have  fewer  priests  and  fewer 
monks,  and  those  we  keep  might  be  better  of  their 
kind.  If  the  bishops  will  only  be  moderate,  things 
may  end  well  after  all.  But  we  must  not  hurt  the 
corn  in  clearing  out  the  tares.  We  must  forget  our- 
selves, and  think  first  of  Christ's  glory,  cease  our 
recriminations,  and  regard  all  these  calamities  as  a 
call  to  each  of  us  to  amend  his  own  life. 

And  to  Duke  George  again  : l  — 

March  24,  1528. 
Far  be  it  from  me  to  accuse  the  Emperor  and  Fer- 
dinand of  cruelty.  Both  of  them  have  stood  my  firm 
friends  when  my  enemies  wanted  to  destroy  me.  But 
I  had  rather  the  plague  could  be  stayed  by  quiet  reme- 
dies than  by  the  deaths  of  thousands  of  human  crea- 
tures, and  in  this  I  do  but  say  what  Augustine  said. 
and  Jerome,  and  other  champions  of  the  faith.  I  am 
not  pleading  for  heretics.  I  speak  in  the  interests  of 
the  princes  themselves  and  of  Catholic  truth.  The  poi- 
son has  gone  dee]).  If  the  sword  is  to  be  the  cure,  good 
and  bad  will  fall  alike  by  it,  and  none  can  tell    what 

1  Ep.  dcocoliii.,  abridged. 


350  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

the  end  will  be.  Charity  and  humanity  recommend 
milder  courses.  It  is  not  what  heretics  deserve,  but 
what  is  most  expedient  for  Christendom.  The  Donat- 
ists  were  worse  than  heretics,  yet  Augustine  did  not 
wish  them  killed.  I  blame  neither  Charles  nor  Ferdi- 
nand. The  heretics  challenged  them,  and  have  earned 
what  they  may  get,  but  I  wish  this  war  would  end,  as 
I  have  told  the  Emperor  again  and  again ;  and  as  to 
heresy,  it  is  better  to  cure  a  sick  man  than  to  kill 
him.  To  say  that  severity  will  fail  to  cure  heresy  is 
not  to  defend  it,  but  to  point  out  how  it  could  be  dealt 
with  better. 

One  more,  to  the  Bishop  of  Augsburg :  1  — 

August  26,  1528. 

The  state  of  the  Church  distracts  me.  My  own  con- 
science is  easy ;  I  was  alone  in  saying  from  the  first 
that  the  disorder  must  be  encountered  in  its  germs  ;  I 
was  too  true  a  prophet ;  the  play,  which  opened  with 
universal  hand-clapping,  is  ending  as  I  foresaw  that  it 
must.  The  kings  are  fighting  among  themselves  for 
objects  of  their  own.  The  monks,  instead  of  looking 
for  a  reign  of  Christ,  want  only  to  reign  themselves. 
The  theologians  curse  Luther,  and  in  cursing  him 
curse  the  truth  delivered  by  Christ  and  the  Apostles, 
and,  idiots  that  they  are,  alienate  with  their  foul 
speeches  many  who  would  have  returned  to  the  Church, 
or  but  for  them  would  have  never  left  it. 

No  fact  is  plainer  than  that  this  tempest  has  been 
sent  from  heaven  by  God's  anger,  as  the  frogs  and  lo- 
custs and  the  rest  were  sent  on  the  Egyptians  ;  but  no 
one  remembers  his  own  faults,  and  each  blames  the 
other.  It  is  easy  to  see  who  sowed  the  seed  and  who 
ripened  the  crop.  The  Dominicans  accuse  me.  They 
will  find  no  heresy  in  work  of  mine.  I  am  not  so 
thought  of  by  greater  men  then  they. 

The  Emperor  wants  me  in  Spain,  Ferdinand  wants 
me  at  Vienna,  the  Regent  Margaret  invites  me  to  Bra- 
bant, the  King  of  England  to  London.     Each  offers 

1  Ep.  deccclxxi.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XVII.  351 

me  an  ample  salaiy,  and  this  they  can  give.  Alas  ! 
they  cannot  give  me  back  my  youth  and  strength. 
Would  they  could  ! 

Yet  more  important  is  a  letter  written  at  the  same 
time  to  an  unnamed  English  bishop,1  who  had  com- 
plained of  passages  in  the  "  Colloquies  "  reflecting  on 
the  monks  and  the  confessional.  Erasmus  goes  at 
length  into  the  whole  question. 

What  I  have  said  (he  writes)  is  not  to  discourage 
confession,  but  to  check  the  abuse  of  it.  Confessions 
are  notoriously  betrayed.  The  aim  of  the  monks  is 
not  to  benefit  men's  souls  but  to  gather  harvests  out 
of  their  purses,  learn  their  secrets,  rule  in  their  houses ; 
and  everyone  who  knows  the  facts  will  understand 
why  these  confessors  need  to  be  controlled.  I  have  not 
condemned  ceremonies.  I  have  only  insisted  on  the 
proper  use  of  them.  Christ  did  the  same,  so  why 
find  fault  with  me  ?  I  have  complained  of  the  extrav- 
agant importance  attached  to  fasting.  I  have  just 
heard  that  two  poor  creatures  are  to  be  murdered  in 
France  because  they  have  eaten  meat  in  Lent.  I  have 
said  there  are  too  many  holidays  ;  others  have  said  sO 
besides  me.  More  sins  are  committed  on  holidays 
than  on  any  other  day  in  the  week.  I  have  spoken 
of  miracles.  The  Christian  religion  nowadays  does  not 
require  miracles,  and  there  are  none ;  but  you  know 
what  lying  stories  are  set  about  by  crafty  knaves. 

After  giving  various  instances  of  monastic  knavery, 
he  jroes  on  :  — 


tv 


To  rascals  like  these  the  Pope  and  the  princes  are 
now  entrusting  power  to  suppress  heresy,  and  they 
abuse  it  to  revenge  their  own  wrongs.  The  monastic 
profession  may  be  honourable  in  itself.  Genuine 
monks  we  can  respect;  but  where  are  they'.'  What 
monastic  character  have  those  we  see  except  the  dress 
and  the   tonsure?     It  would    l>c   wrong    to   say    that 

1  Ej>.  di  i 


352  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

there  are  no  exceptions.  Bat  I  beseech  you  —  you 
who  are  a  pure  good  man  —  go  round  the  religious 
houses  in  your  own  diocese ;  how  much  will  you  find 
of  Christian  piety  ?  The  mendicant  orders  are  the 
worst ;  and  are  they  to  be  allowed  to  tyrannise  over 
us?  I  do  not  say  this  to  injure  any  individual.  I 
say  it  of  those  who  disgrace  their  calling.  They  are 
hated,  and  they  know  why ;  but  they  will  not  mend 
their  lives,  and  think  to  bear  down  opposition  with 
insolence  and  force.  Augustine  says  that  there  were 
nowhere  better  men  than  in  monasteries,  and  nowhere 
worse.  What  would  he  say  now  —  if  he  was  to  see  so 
many  of  these  houses  both  of  men  and  women  public 
brothels  ?  [Quid  nunc  Augustinus  diceret  si  videret 
multa  monasteria  qure  nihil  differunt  a  publicis  lup- 
anaribus?  Quid  de  monacharum  multis  collegiis  in 
quibus  nihil  minus  reperias  quam  castitatem  ?] 

I  speak  of  these  places  as  they  exist  now  among 
ourselves.  Immortal  Gods  !  how  small  is  the  number 
where  you  will  find  Christianity  of  any  kind !  The 
malice  and  ignorance  of  these  creatures  will  breed  a 
revolution  worse  than  Luther's  unless  the  princes  and 
bishops  see  to  them.  The  Dominicans  and  Francis- 
cans have  been  lighting  their  fagots  in  France.  These 
are  but  the  first  droppings  of  the  storm,  the  preludes 
of  what  we  are  to  expect  from  monastic  despotism, 
and  if  their  hands  are  not  held,  the  rage  of  the  people 
will  burst  out  in  a  tornado.  The  mendicants  are  at 
the  bottom  of  the  mischief,  and  there  will  be  no  peace 
till  they  are  made  to  know  their  places.  It  will  be 
for  their  own  security.  The  most  respectable,  if  not 
the  largest  part  of  these  communities,  desire  it  them- 
selves. To  abolish  them  is  a  rude  remedy.  It  has 
been  done  in  some  places,  but  they  ought  to  be  brought 
back  to  their  original  purpose  as  schools  of  piety,  and 
it  will  be  a  good  day  for  the  monks  when  they  are  re- 
formed. They  must  not  be  allowed  to  live  longer  in 
idleness.  Their  exemptions  must  be  cancelled,  and  they 
must  be  placed  under  the  bishops ;  and  as  to  their 
images,  the  people  must  be  taught  that  they  are  no 


Lecture  XVII.  353 

more  than  signs.  It  would  be  better  if  there  were 
none  at  all,  and  if  prayer  was  only  addressed  to  Christ. 
But  iu  all  things  let  there  be  moderation.  The  storm 
has  come  upon  us  by  the  will  of  God,  who  is  plaguing 
us  as  he  plagued  the  Egyptians.  Let  us  confess  our 
sins  and  pray  for  mercy. 

If  the  Emperor  meant  to  try  persecution,  the  reli- 
gious orders,  and  especially  the  mendicant  orders, 
woidd  necessarily  be  the  most  active  in  it,  through  the 
immense  powers  of  the  confessional.  Erasmus  was  in 
terror  at  the  prospect,  and  persisted,  wherever  his 
voice  could  reach,  in  exposing  their  real  character. 
Had  he  been  a  Lutheran  writing  to  Lutherans,  his 
evidence  might  be  suspected,  but  he  addresses  his 
protests  to  bishops,  statesmen,  cardinals,  princes,  to 
whose  personal  experience  he  appeals.  It  was  danger- 
ous to  tell  the  truth.  It  would  have  been  doubly 
dangerous  —  entirely  fatal  to  him  —  to  lie  or  exagge- 
rate. He  mentions,  on  his  own  personal  knowledge, 
several  specially  disgusting  features  of  monastic  life. 
Part  of  a  monk's  duties  was  to  read  aloud  in  the  re- 
fectory some  edifying  story.  It  would  be  begun  and 
ended  in  the  usual  way  ;  in  the  intervals  the  reader 
would  introduce  licentious  anecdotes  of  adventures  in 
brothels.  Others  would  baptize  and  hear  confessions 
when  they  were  drunk.  He  tells  a  case  where  a  father, 
who  was  far  gone  this  way,  fell  asleep  in  the  box 
when  hearing  a  confession.  The  penitent,  finding  he 
was  not  attended  to,  broke  off  and  went  away ; 
another  penitent  came,  and  the  father  again  slept ; 
the  second  sinner,  less  patient  than  the  other,  roused 
him,  and  asked  him  if  he  was  listening.  The  father 
confounded  the  two.  "  Yes,  yes,''  h<'  said,  "you  told 
me  you  had  broken  open  your  neighbour's  desk. 
Very  good.  Go  on."  The  man  said  he  had  broken 
open  no  desk  and  went  off  in  a  rage. 


354  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Erasmus  gives  extraordinary  instances  of  the  igno- 
rance of  the  clergy.  One  was  connected  with  himself, 
and  is  described  in  a  letter  to  Martin  Lipsius.1 

September  5,  1528. 
Not  long  ago  a  physician  of  my  acquaintance  hap- 
pened to  say  something  in  my  favour  in  a  public  assem- 
bly. A  Dominican  prior  present,  reputed  learned,  said 
my  work  was  worthless,  full  of  obscenities,  and  unfit 
to  be  read  by  decent  people.  The  physician  asked  for 
an  example.  The  Dominican  said  that  in  my  treatise 
on  marriage  I  had  accused  the  bishops  of  unnatural 
crimes,  and  had  charged  them  besides  with  keeping 
four  or  five  concubines.  The  book  was  produced,  and 
he  pointed  out  a  passage  where  I  say  that  as  the  rule 
now  stands  a  priest  cannot  be  a  married  man,  but 
may  keep  mistresses  and  yet  be  putus  or  TeAeios  and 
hold  four  or  five  episcopas.  Putus,  which  means 
pure,  he  had  taken  to  be  the  masculine  of  puta  (a 
whore),  and  to  mean  a  cinmdus.  Episcopas,  St. 
Paul's  word  for  bishops'  sees,  he  had  construed  into 
bishops'  wives. 

Exposed  to  the  attacks  of  such  enemies  as  these, 
and  threatened  by  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  Erasmus 
had  a  bad  time  of  it  —  cursed  on  one  side  by  the 
Lutherans,  who  charged  him  with  sinning  against 
light ;  cursed  by  the  theologians  of  the  old  school  as 
the  cause  of  all  the  disturbance ;  and  both  sides,  and 
especially  the  Catholics,  clamouring  to  him  to  speak  a 
decisive  word.  His  books  were  selling  faster  than 
ever,  and  the  injury  to  the  Church,  if  injury  they 
were  doing,  was  continually  growing.  An  orthodox 
champion  urged  him  to  clear  himself  from  the  suspi- 
cion of  favouring  a  falling  cause.     He  answers : 2 — • 

The  confusion  spreads,  and  may  grow  to  worse 
than   you    think.     Luther's   first  protest  was  hardly 

1  Ep.  dcccclxxrx. 

2  Ep.  cccxlv.,  second  series. 


Lecture  XVII.  355 

more  than  a  jest.  The  monks  shrieked.  Bulls  and 
edicts  followed.  What  have  they  effected?  It  may 
be  that  parts  of  my  writings  need  correction ;  but 
there  is  a  time  for  everything.  You  think  Luther 
prostrate.  Would  that  he  was !  He  has  been  pierced 
often  enough,  but  he  lives  yet  —  lives  in  the  minds  of 
men  to  whom  he  is  commended  by  the  wickedness  of 
the  monks.  You  and  your  friends  think  that  when 
you  have  finished  Luther  you  will  settle  accounts 
with  Erasmus.  You  have  not  finished  Luther,  and 
while  Luther  lives  you  will  hide  like  nails  in  your 
shells.  I  encountered  him  at  the  request  of  the  Pope 
and  the  Emperor  in  his  strongest  position.  I  was 
victorious ;  but  I  was  wounded  in  the  fight,  and  you 
took  the  opportunity  to  fall  on  me  from  behind. 

All  this  was  hard  to  bear  ;  Erasmus  was  growing 
old  (past  sixty),  suffering  besides  from  gout  and 
stone,  and  heavy  laden  with  his  editions  of  the  fathers, 
which,  in  spite  of  his  troubles,  he  still  steadily  laboured 
at.  He  was  thin-skinned  as  ever,  and  writhed  under 
the  darts  which  were  flung  at  him.  The  Emperor 
remained  j)ersonally  kind,  and  the  threatened  inquiry 
into  his  works  in  Spain  was  silenced.  But  the  public 
attitude  of  Charles  was  ambiguous  and  menacing. 
The  edicts  were  being  enforced  in  the  Low  Countries 
against  Anabaptists.  Peasant  wars  had  broken  out. 
Anabaptism  meant  anarchy  and  social  ruin,  and  must 
be  suppressed  at  all  hazards.  Both  the  Pope  and 
Charles,  however,  seemed  to  have  determined  on  a 
general  policy  of  repression,  and  the  victory  of  the 
Church  party  would  mean  the  victory  of  darkness  and 
superstition,  against  which  lie  had  been  fighting  all 
his  life.  His  energy  never  slackened,  his  letters  to 
contemporary  scholars  on  learned  subjects  through 
this  anxious  time  were  as  elaborate  as  if  he  thought 
of   nothing  save  the  rendering  of  Greek  texts.      But 


35G  Life   and  Letters   of  Erasmus. 

the  aspect  of  things  grew  blacker  and  blacker,  and  he 
sickened  at  the  thought  of  what  was  coming. 

TO    LEWIS    BER.1 

April  1, 1529. 

God  knows  what  the  end  will  be.  Like  enough  He 
is  punishing  us  for  our  sins.  Sad  indeed  has  been  the 
fall,  specially  among  those  who  were  pillars  of  the 
Church.  Head  the  Gospels,  read  the  constitutions  of 
the  early  popes.  Read  what  Gerson  says  of  the  priests 
and  monks  in  one  of  his  works,  and  see  how  we  have 
degenerated.  But  never  will  I  be  tempted  or  exas- 
perated into  deserting  the  true  communion.  I  have 
at  times  been  provoked  into  a  desire  of  revenge.  But 
the  prick  goes  no  deeper  than  the  skin.  The  ill-will 
of  some  wretched  fellow-creature  shall  not  tempt  me 
to  lay  hands  on  the  mother  who  washed  me  at  the 
font,  fed  me  with  the  word  of  God,  and  quickened  me 
with  the  sacraments.  I  will  not  lose  my  immortal 
soul  to  avenge  a  worldly  wrong.  I  resist  the  weak- 
ness, though  I  cannot  choose  but  feel  my  injuries.  I 
understand  now  how  Arius  and  Tertullian  and  Wick- 
liff  were  driven  into  schism  by  malicious  clergy  and 
wicked  monks.  I  will  not  forsake  the  Church  myself, 
I  would  forfeit  life  and  reputation  sooner ;  but  how 
unprovoked  was  the  conspiracy  to  ruin  me !  My 
crime  was  my  effort  to  promote  learning.  That  was 
the  whole  of  it.  For  the  rest  I  have  been  rather  their 
friend  than  their  enemy.  I  advised  divines  to  leave 
scholastic  subtleties  and  study  Scripture  and  the  fa- 
thers. I  bade  monks  remember  their  profession,  for- 
sake the  world,  and  live  for  God.  Was  this  to  hate 
the  divines  and  the  monks  ?  Doubtless  I  have  wished 
that  popes  and  cardinals  and  bishops  were  more  like 
the  Apostles,  but  never  in  thought  have  I  desired  those 
offices  abolished.  There  may  be  arguments  about  the 
Real  Presence,  but  I  will  never  believe  that  Christ 
would  have  allowed  His  Church  to  remain  so  long  in 
such  an  error  (if  error  it  be)  as  to  worship  a  wafer 

1  Ep.  mxxxv.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XVII.  357 

for  God.  The  Lutheran  notion  that  any  Christian 
may  consecrate  or  absolve  or  ordain  I  think  pure  in- 
sanity. But  if  monks  fancy  that  by  screaming  and 
shrieking-  they  can  recover  their  old  tyranny,  or  that 
popes  and  prelates  can  put  the  fire  out  with  a  high 
hand,  they  are  greatly  mistaken.  It  may  be  smothered 
for  a  moment,  but  surely  it  will  break  out  again.  A 
disease  can  only  be  cured  by  removing  the  causes  of 
it.  We  need  not  give  up  our  belief  in  the  Church 
because  men  are  wicked.  But  if  fresh  shoots  are  not 
to  sprout,  the  evil  must  be  torn  out  by  the  roots. 

And  again,  to  the  same  correspondent :  — 

See  what  the  world  is  coming  to  —  rapine,  murder, 
plague,  famine,  rebellion  ;  no  one  trying  to  mend  his 
own  life;  God  scourging  us,  and  we  taking  no  heed, 
and  hardening  our  hearts  against  Him.  What  can  be 
before  us  but  the  deluge  ? 

Anabaptism  was  a  new  and  ugly  phenomenon. 
Like  the  modern  Socialists,  the  Anabaptists  threatened 
to  destroy  society  and  remake  it  on  a  new  pattern,  and 
Luther  and  even  Erasmus  excluded  these  poor 
wretches  from  toleration.  Yet  Erasmus  would  have 
had  a  pitying  word  for  the  devil  himself. 

This  sect  (he  says)  is  peculiarly  obnoxious  because 
they  teach  community  of  goods,  and  will  not  obey 
magistrates.  They  have  no  el m relies.  They  do  not 
aim  at  power,  and  do  not  resist  when  arrested.  They 
are  said  to  be  moral  in  their  conduct,  if  anything  can 
be  moral  with  so  corrupt  a  faith. 

Erasmus  was  against  burning  even  Anabaptists,  and 
eaeli  poor  victim  that  he  heard  of  gave  him  a  pang. 
The  Sorbonne  was  just  then  active  in  Paris:  Francis 
wanting  to  establish  a  reputation  for  orthodoxy. 
They  had  found  an  unhappy  wretch  of  this  persuasion 
preaching  repentance.     Erasmus  observes  that  it  was 


358  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

no  such  terrible  crime,  mankind  being  supposed  to 
require  repentance ;  but  they  seized  and  roasted  him 
for  all  that. 

The  accident  of  date  introduces  another  letter,  writ- 
ten simultaneously  with  those  which  I  have  just 
quoted.  It  has  no  reference  to  his  alarms  at  the  state 
of  Europe,  but  it  relates  to  a  subject  which  may  have 
an  interest  for  you  in  itself,  and  I  may  close  this  lec- 
ture with  it. 

You  will  all  have  heard  of  Henry  VIII.'s  hook 
against  Luther ;  a  question  rose  at  the  time,  and  has 
continued  ever  since,  whether  Henry  wrote  it  himself. 
Here  is  what  Erasmus  says  on  the  subject.1  Coch- 
lseus,  who  was  going  fiercely  into  the  divorce  question, 
was  among  the  doubters.     Erasmus  writes  to  him  :  — 

April  1,  1539. 

The  German  Catholics  refuse  to  believe  that  a  king 
can  write  a  book.  I  will  not  say  the  King  of  England 
had  no  help.  The  most  learned  men  now  and  then 
are  helped  by  friends.  But  I  am  quite  sure  the  work 
is  essentially  his  own.  His  father  was  a  man  of 
strong  sense.  His  mother  was  brilliant,  witty,  and 
pious.  The  King  himself  studied  hard  in  his  youth. 
He  was  quick,  prompt,  skilful  in  all  that  he  under- 
took, and  never  took  up  anything  which  he  did  not  go 
through  with.  He  made  himself  a  fine  shot,  a  good 
rider,  a  fair  musician  besides,  and  was  well  grounded 
in  mathematics.  His  intellectual  pursuits  he  has  al- 
ways kept  up.  He  spends  his  leisure  in  reading  and 
conversation.  He  argues  so  pleasantly  that  you  for- 
get you  are  speaking  with  a  Prince.  He  has  studied 
the  schoolmen,  Aquinas,  Scotus,  and  the  rest.  Mount- 
joy,  who  saw  that  I  was  suspicious  about  the  book, 
showed  me  one  day  a  number  of  the  King's  letters  to 
himself  and  to  others.  They  were  obviously  his  own, 
corrected  and  altered  in  his  own  hand.  I  had  no 
answer  to  make. 

1  Ep.  mxxxviii.,  abridged. 


LECTURE  XVIII. 

Age  and  ill-health  had  tamed  Erasmus's  wandering 
propensities.  He  had  now  for  several  years  been 
stationary  at  Bale,  by  the  side  of  his  friend  Froben's 
printing  establishment,  where  his  work  was  carried 
on.  Bale  was  a  self-governed  city  with  popular  in- 
stitutions, and  had  so  far  remained  Catholic.  The 
reformers,  however,  had  been  annually  increasing. 
They  found  themselves  at  length  with  a  clear  major- 
ity, and  he  was  to  witness  an  ecclesiastical  revolution 
immediately  under  his  own  eyes.  The  scene  as  Eras- 
mus described  it  to  Pirkheimer  is  curious  in  itself,  and 
was  a  specimen  of  what  had  been  going  on  in  most  of 
the  free  cities  of  Germany.  He  expected  disorder; 
there  was  none.  The  Catholic  members  of  the  Senate 
were  expelled  to  prevent  opposition,  and  the  people 
went  to  work  methodically  to  abolish  the  mass  and 
establish  Lutheranism. 

TO   PIRKHEIMER.1 

Smiths  and  carpenters  were  sent  to  remove  the 
images  from  the  churches.  The  roods  and  the  unfor- 
tunate saints  were  cruelly  handled.  Strange  that  none 
of  them  worked  a  miracle  to  avenge  their  dignity, 
when  before  they  had  worked  so  many  at  the  slightest 
invitation.  Not  a  statue  was  left  in  church,  niche, 
or  monastery.  The  paintings  on  (lie  walls  were  white- 
washed. Everything  combustible  was  burnt.  What 
would  not  burn  was  broken  to  pieces.  Nothing  was 
Spared,  however  precious  or  beautiful  ;  and  mass  was 
prohibited  even  in  private  houses. 

1  Ep.  mxlviii. 


360  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

And  in  another  letter  : l  — 

The  affair  was  less  violent  than  we  feared  it  might 
be.  No  houses  were  broken  into,  and  no  one  was  hurt. 
They  would  have  hanged  my  neighbour,  the  Consul,  if 
they  had  caught  him,  but  he  slipped  off  in  the  night ; 
not  like  St.  Paul  in  a  basket,  but  down  the  river 
in  a  boat.  His  crime  had  been  that  he  had  so  long 
obstructed  the  Gospel.  As  it  was,  no  blood  was  shed ; 
but  there  was  a  cruel  assault  on  altars,  images,  and 
pictures.  We  are  told  that  St.  Francis  used  to  resent 
light  remarks  about  his  five  wounds,  and  several  other 
saints  are  said  to  have  shown  displeasure  on  similar 
occasions.  It  was  strange  that  at  Bale  not  a  saint 
stirred  a  finger.  I  am  not  so  much  surprised  at  the 
patience  of  Christ  and  the  Virgin  Mary. 

Erasmus  had  seen  the  storm  coming  and  had  pre- 
pared for  it.  He  had  perceived  that  a  reformed  Bale 
could  no  longer  be  a  home  for  him  —  go  he  must,  if 
the  Catholic  world  was  not  to  reproach  him  with  being 
an  accomplice.  He  had  feared  that  if  he  tried  to 
escape,  the  revolutionary  party  might  keep  him  by 
force.  He  procured  a  safe-conduct,  and  an  invitation 
from  the  Archduke  Ferdinand.  His  books,  plate,  and 
property  he  despatched  privately  to  Freyburg,  within 
the  Austrian  frontier.  The  magistrates,  he  thought, 
would  hesitate  to  interfere  with  him  when  protected 
with  a  pass  in  the  Archduke's  hand. 

Money  (he  tells  Pirkheimer),  with  plate,  jewels, 
and  anything  which  would  tempt  robbers,  had  been 
sent  on  first,  and  afterward  two  wa^o-on  loads  of 
books  and  furniture.  I  called  on  (Ecolampadius  ;  we 
had  some  talk,  and  did  not  quarrel.  He  wanted  me 
to  remain  at  Bale.  I  said  I  was  sorry  to  leave  it,  but 
if  I  stayed  I  should  seem  to  approve  of  what  had 
been  done  ;  and  my  baggage,  besides,  had  been  all 
despatched  to  Freyburg.     He  said  he  hoped  I  should 

1  Ep.  nilxix. 


Lecture  XVHL  361 

return ;  we  shook  hands  and  parted.  In  fact,  I  had 
no  choice.  I  could  not  stay  in  a  place  where  I  should 
be  at  the  mercy  of  the  rabble,  and  where  I  could  not 
expect  the  protection  of  the  magistrates.  I  had  some 
difficulty  in  getting  on  board  my  boat.  I  wanted  to 
start  from  a  private  landing-place.  The  Senate  said 
that  Bale  was  free  for  everyone  to  come  and  go. 
There  was  no  need  of  secrecy,  and  it  could  not  be 
allowed.  I  submitted,  and  embarked  with  a  few 
friends  at  the  bridge.  At  Freyburg- 1  found  the  offi- 
cials most  hospitable,  even  before  they  had  received 
the  Archduke's  letter.  They  have  allotted  me  as  a 
residence  the  unfinished  palace  which  was  begun  by 
Maximilian. 

At  Freyburg  Erasmus  was  personally  safe,  but  the 
ill-look  of  public  affairs  more  and  more  disturbed  him. 
"  War  is  coming,"  he  wrote.  "  The  Emperor  thun- 
ders from  Italy,  and  revolution  rushes  forward  among 
the  Germans.  I  have  wished  nvyself  at  Cracow."' 
He  had  a  personal  sorrow,  too,  in  the  loss  of  a  distin- 
guished young  French  friend,  Louis  Berquin,  who 
was  seized  and  burnt  by  the  Church  authorities  at 
Paris  for  speaking  his  mind  too  freely. 

All  error  is  not  heresy  (he  says,  writing  about  it  to 
Utenhovius  x),  and  a  man  who  is  honestly  mistaken, 
and  has  merely  adopted  a  wrong  opinion,  is  not  to  be 
confounded  with  ill-dispositioned  rebels  and  disturbers 
of  public  peace.  It  is  a  new  thing  to  burn  a  man  for 
a  mistake,  and  I  wonder  how  the  practice  began.  If 
the  piety  of  the  French  kept  pace  with  (heir  supersti- 
tion, one  might  approve  of  this  new-born  zeal  of  theirs. 
It  is  matched  on  the  other  side:  in  some  German 
States  the  Pope  is  Antichrist,  the  bishops  are  hob- 
goblins, the  priests  swine,  the  princes  tyrants,  the 
monasteries  Satan's  conventicles;  and  the  power  is  in 
the  hands  of  Gospel  mobs,  who  are  readier  to  light 
than  reason.  Happy  Berquin  if  he  lias  died  with  a 
1   Ep.  mix.,  alu-id^ed. 


362  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

good  conscience,  for  good  and  bad  are  now  sent  the 
same  road  —  hanged,  burnt,  or  dismembered.  Decent 
magistrates  will  crucify  you  as  readily  as  the  sav- 
agest  despot.  Human  courts  of  justice  are  not  worth 
much  nowadays,  and  those  are  fortunate  who  stand 
acquitted  at  the  great  tribunal. 

Another  letter :  — 

TO   jEMILIUS    AB  iEMILIO.1 

May  29,  1529. 
All  grows  wilder  and  wilder.  Men  talk  of  heresy 
and  orthdoxy,  of  Antichrists  and  Catholics,  but  none 
speak  of  Christ.  The  world  is  in  labour.  Good  may 
come  if  Christ  directs  the  birth.  There  is  no  help 
else.  Paganism  comes  to  life  again  ;  Pharisees  fight 
against  the  Gospel ;  in  such  a  monstrous  tempest  we 
need  skilful  pilots.  Christ  has  been  sleeping  so  far. 
I  trust  the  prayers  of  the  faithful  will  wake  Him.  He 
may  then  command  sea  and  waves,  and  they  will  obey 
Him.  The  monks  have  howled.  The  theologians 
have  made  articles  of  belief.  We  have  had  prisons, 
informations,  bulls,  and  burnings ;  and  what  has  come 
of  them?  Outcries  enough;  but  no  crying  to  Christ. 
Christ  will  not  wake  till  we  call  to  Him  in  sincerity  of 
heart.  Then  He  will  arise  and  bid  the  sea  be  still, 
and  there  will  be  a  great  calm. 


&' 


The  confusion  in  Germany  and  the  straitened  state 
of  Charles's  finances  had  made  the  payment  of  Eras- 
mus's Imperial  pension  somewhat  irregular  ;  and  be- 
yond this  he  had  still  no  settled  income  save  what  he 
received  from  Warham  and  Mountjoy.  He  had  been 
always  careless  in  his  expenses,  and  failing  health  had 
not  promoted  economy.  Lavish  presents  from  great 
people,  lay  and  ecclesiastic,  plate,  jewels,  and  money, 
had  spared  him  so  far  from  anxiety,  even  when 
Charles's  treasurer  forgot  him.     But  the  move  from 


i 


Ep.  ml.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XVIII.  363 

Bale  to  Freyburg  and  the  starting  a  new  establish- 
ment had  proved  a  costly  business,  and  he  might  have 
been  in  difficulties  again  but  for  the  generosity  of  the 
Fuggers,  the  great  banking  firm  at  Augsburg.  The 
head  of  the  house,  however,  came  to  his  assistance 
with  unbounded  liberality ;  and  Freyburg  otherwise 
suited  him  well.  It  was  within  the  Austrian  bound- 
ary, and  under  Ferdinand's  immediate  authority.  The 
only  danger  woidd  be  if  the  European  war  rolled  that 
way,  or  the  Turks  took  Vienna,  either  of  which  was 
possible.  The  country  might  then  be  overrun  with 
vagabond  soldiers,  who  were  Erasmus's  special  horror 
and  the  curse  of  the  age.  He  could  not  execrate  too 
loudly  the  madness  of  the  two  monarchs  for  whose 
rivalry  the  world  was  too  narrow.  Francis  had  ac- 
cepted a  dispensation  from  the  Pope  from  the  oath 
which  he  had  sworn  at  the  Treaty  of  Madrid.  Charles 
insisted  on  his  bond  ;  and  at  a  time  when  Europe  most 
needed  the  ruling  hand  of  secular  authority  the  Turks 
were  left  to  fasten  themselves  on  Hungary,  the  free 
cities  of  Germany  to  revolt  from  the  Church,  and 
frantic  theologians,  Catholic,  Lutheran,  Zwinglian, 
and  Calvinist,  to  tear  and  rend  each  other. 

It  was  a  mad  world. 

TO    BOTZEMUS.1 

Fbeybi  bo,  August  13,  1520. 

In  such  times  as  ours  it  is  better  to  call  on  the  Lord 
than  to  trust  in  princes  and  armies.  We  must  pray 
to  Him  to  shorten  these  days.  Alas!  Christianity 
has  sunk  so  low  that  scarce  a  man  knows  now  what 
calling  on  the  Lord  means.  One  looks  to  cardinals 
and  bishops,  another  to  kings,  another  to  the  black 
battalions  of  monks  and  divines.  What  do  they  want? 
What  do  they  expect  from  protectors,  who  care 
1  E}>.  mlxxii.,  abridged. 


304  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

nothing  for  Catholic  piety,  and  care  only  to  recover 
their  old  power  and  enjoyments  ?  We  were  drunk  or 
asleep,  and  God  has  sent  these  stern  schoolmasters  to 
wake  us  up.  The  rope  has  been  overstrained.  It 
might  have  stood  if  they  had  slackened  it  a  little,  but 
they  would  rather  have  it  break  than  save  it  by  con- 
cession. The  Pope  is  head  of  the  Church,  and  as  such 
deserves  to  be  honoured.  He  stretched  his  authority 
too  far,  and  so  the  first  strand  of  the  rope  parted. 
Pardons  and  indulgences  were  tolerable  within  limits. 
Monks  and  commissaries  filled  the  world  with  them 
to  line  their  own  pockets.  In  every  Church  were  the 
red  boxes  and  the  crosses  and  the  papal  arms,  and 
the  people  were  forced  to  buy.  So  the  second  strand 
went.  Then  there  was  the  invocation  of  saints.  The 
images  in  churches  at  first  served  for  ornaments  and 
examples.  By-and-by  the  walls  were  covered  with 
scandalous  pictures.  The  cult  ran  to  idolatry;  so 
parted  a  third.  The  singing  of  hymns  was  an  ancient 
and  pious  custom,  but  when  music  was  introduced 
fitter  for  weddings  and  bancpiets  than  for  God's  ser- 
vice, and  the  sacred  words  were  lost  in  affected  into- 
nations, so  that  no  word  in  the  Liturgy  was  spoken 
plainly,  away  went  another.  What  is  more  solemn 
than  the  mass  ?  But  when  stupid  vagabond  priests 
learn  up  two  or  three  masses  and  repeat  them  over  and 
over  as  a  cobbler  makes  shoes ;  when  notorious  pro- 
fligates officiate  at  the  Lord's  table,  and  the  sacredest 
of  mysteries  is  sold  for  money  —  well,  this  strand  is 
almost  gone  too.  Secret  confession  may  be  useful ; 
but  when  it  is  employed  to  extort  money  out  of  the 
terrors  of  fools,  when  an  institution  designed  as  medi- 
cine for  the  soul  is  made  an  instrument  of  priestly  vil- 
lany,  this  part  of  the  cord  will  not  last  much  longer 
either. 

Priests  who  are  loose  in  their  lives  and  yet  demand 
to  be  honoured  as  superior  beings  have  brought  their 
order  into  contempt.  Careless  of  purity,  careless  what 
they  do  or  how  they  live,  the  monks  have  trusted  to 
their  wealth  and  numbers  to  crush  those  whom  they 


Lecture  XVIII.  365 

can  no  longer  deceive.  They  pretended  that  their 
clothes  would  work  miracles,  that  they  could  bring- 
good  luck  into  houses  and  keep  the  devil  out.  How 
is  it  at  present  ?  They  used  to  be  thought  gods. 
They  are  now  scarcely  thought  honest  men. 

I  do  not  say  that  practices  good  in  themselves 
should  be  condemned  because  they  are  abused.  But 
I  do  say  that  we  have  ourselves  given  the  occasion. 
We  have  no  right  to  be  surprised  or  angry,  and  we 
ought  to  consider  quietly  how  best  to  meet  the  storm. 
As  things  go  now  there  will  be  no  improvement,  let 
the  dice  fall  which  way  they  will.  The  Gospellers  go 
for  anarchy  ;  the  Catholics,  instead  of  repenting  of 
their  sins,  pile  superstition  on  superstition  ;  while  Lu- 
ther's disciples,  if  such  they  be,  neglect  prayers,  neg- 
lect the  fasts  of  the  Church,  and  eat  more  on  fast  days 
than  on  common  days.  Papal  constitutions,  clerical 
privileges,  are  scorned  and  trampled  on  ;  and  our  won- 
derful champions  of  the  Church  do  more  than  anyone 
to  bring  the  Holy  See  into  contempt.  There  are  ru- 
mours of  peace.  God  grant  they  prove  true.  If  the 
Emperor,  the  Pope,  and  the  Kings  of  France  and 
England  can  compose  their  differences  and  agree  on 
some  common  course  of  action,  evangelical  religion 
may  be  restored.  But  we  must  deserve  our  blessings 
if  we  are  to  enjoy  them.  When  princes  go  mad,  the 
fault  is  often  in  ourselves. 

As  to  me,  my  worst  enemies  used  to  be  the  Domini- 
cans and  Carmelites.  Now  I  am  best  hated  by  the 
Franciscans,  and  especially  by  the  observant  branch 
of  them.  They  have  long  railed  at  me  inside  their 
walls.  Lately  one  of  them  stormed  ;it  me  for  an  hour 
in  St  Peter's  Church,  and  in  sudi  terms  that  many  of 
the  people  went  out  before  the  sermon  was  finished. 
Cavajal  Salamanca  has  brought  out  a  book  worthy  of 
a  child  of  St.  Francis  ;  when  it  appeared  it  was  nailed 
to  a  gibbet. 

Cardinal  Newman  said  that  Protestant  tradition  on 
the  state  of  the  Church    before  fche    Reformation  is 


3G6  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

built  on  wholesale,  unscrupulous  lying.  Erasmus  was 
as  true  to  the  Holy  See  as  Cardinal  Newman  himself. 
I  do  not  know  whether  he  is  included  among  these 
unscrupulous  liars.  It  is  an  easy  way  to  get  rid  of  an 
unpleasant  witness. 

The  rumours  of  peace  proved  true.  Where  states- 
men had  failed,  the  ladies  were  successful.  The 
Queen  Regent  of  the  Netherlands  and  the  Queen  of 
France  met  at  Cambray  and  arranged  preliminaries. 
A  conference  followed,  where  England  was  again  rep- 
resented by  Sir  T.  More  ;  and  the  war  which  had  so 
horrified  Erasmus  came  for  a  time  to  an  end.  It  had 
begun  in  defence  of  the  Pope  against  the  Emperor. 
Partners  had  changed  in  the  course  of  it,  and  before 
it  was  over  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope  had  become 
close  allies,  and  the  future  position  of  England  towards 
both  of  them  was  depending  on  the  decision  which 
was  to  be  given  on  the  divorce  of  Catherine  of  Ara- 
gon.  "  The  peace  is  made,  "  Henry  said  to  her  when 
the  business  at  Cambray  was  concluded.  "  It  depends 
on  you  whether  it  is  to  last.  " 

A  few  words  to  exjnain  Henry's  meaning. 

Germany  being  divided  and  distracted,  the  military 
power  in  Europe  was  partitioned  between  the  Em- 
peror and  the  Kings  of  France  and  England.  The 
resources  of  Charles  and  Francis  I.  were  so  nearly 
balanced  that  the  accession  of  England  to  either  party 
turned  the  scale.  France  was  the  hereditary  enemy 
of  England ;  Spain  and  Burgundy  England's  heredi- 
tary ally ;  and,  if  the  old  alliance  could  be  re-estab- 
lished, France  was  unlikely  to  break  the  peace  again. 
The  only  obstacle  was  the  proposed  divorce  of  Queen 
Catherine.  I  need  not  enter  here  into  the  rights  and 
wrongs  of  that  much-agitated  question ;  but  it  is  quite 
certain  that  the  Emperor,  the  Pope,  every  responsible 


Lecture  XVIII.  367 

statesman  in  Europe,  except  perhaps  the  King  of 
France,  desired  to  see  it  honourably  and  amicably  ar- 
ranged. Marriages  contracted  by  princes  for  political 
purposes  are  under  other  conditions  than  voluntary 
contracts  between  private  persons.  The  marriage  of 
Henry  and  Catherine  had  been  arranged  for  a  politi- 
cal jmrpose  ;  it  had  failed  in  the  primary  object  of 
providing  a  male  heir  to  the  crown,  and  in  the  absence 
of  a  male  heir  it  was  notorious  that  a  fresh  war  of 
succession  would  follow  on  the  King's  death.  Cath- 
erine was  past  the  age  when  she  could  hope  for  an- 
other child.  As  she  was  Prince  Arthur's  widow,  her 
marriage  with  Henry  had  been  made  possible  only  by 
a  papal  dispensation,  and  it  was  uncertain  whether  the 
dispensation  itself  had  been  lawfully  granted.  The 
dissolution  of  such  a  marriage  when  the  interest  of  a 
great  nation  was  at  stake  would  have  been  simple  and 
unobjectionable.  No  decision  needed  to  be  made  on 
the  validity  of  the  marriage,  and  Catherine  could  re- 
tain her  title  and  establishment,  and  thus  would  lose 
nothing.  She  had  but  to  retire  into  what  was  called 
lax  religion  and  to  take  a  formal  vow  of  celibacy. 
The  King  could  then  be  easily  enabled  to  marry  again. 
This  was  the  solution  of  the  difficulty  which  the  Pope 
himself  desired  and  urged,  having  admitted  that 
Henry's  demand  was  a  just  one.  Charles,  though  not 
pleased  with  the  slight  upon  his  family,  would  have 
sacrificed  his  pride  to  preserve  the  English  alliance 
and  the  peace  of  Europe.  The  only  difficulty  lay 
with  Catherine.  Consent  she  would  not,  and  the  Em- 
peror, as  her  natural  protector,  insisted  that  her  mar- 
riage should  not  be  judicially  declared  null  against 
her  will.  The  question  was  hanging  in  abeyance  at 
the  time  of  the  Peace  of  Cambray,  and  no  mention 
was  made  of  it  among  the  articles  considered.     Cardi- 


368  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

nal  Campegio,  Erasmus's  friend,  was  on  his  way  to 
England  as  legate  with  a   commission   to  settle  the 
dispute,  and  Clement    had  secretly  promised  Henry 
that  Campegio  should  give  judgment   in  his  favour. 
But  promises  went  for   little  with  a  Pope  who  had 
powers  to  hind  and  to   loose  ;  and  Charles,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  extorted  another  secret  promise  from 
him  that  till  Catherine  agreed  no  judgment  should  be 
given  at  all.     Henry  was  a  dangerous  person  to  trifle 
with.    Another  question  now  naturally  rose  —  whether 
a  Pope  who    refused  deliberately  to  do  what  he  ac- 
knowledged to  be  right,  who  was  sacrificing  the  inter- 
ests of  England  at  the  bidding  of  another  sovereign, 
could  be  allowed  to  retain  any  authority  at  all  in  Eng- 
land ;  whether  England  was  not  competent  to  settle 
her  own  problems  in   her  own  way.     All  turned  on 
Catherine,  and   that    was   the    meaning    of    Henry's 
words  to    her.     If  she    would   consent,  Charles  and 
Henry  would  remain  friends,  and  they  two  with  the 
Pope  could  restore  order  to  Europe.     Singular  that 
so  much  should  have  hung  on  the  will  of  a  single  wo- 
man !     Erasmus  was  unable  to  believe  that  interests 
so  enormous  could  be  interfered  with  by  so  slight  an 
obstacle.       When    he    heard   that   the  business   was 
trusted  to  Campegio  he  ceased  to   feel  even  uneasi- 
ness,   so  confident   was   he    of  a   satisfactory  result. 
Little  did  he   foresee,  sharp-sighted  though  he  was, 
that   out  of  this    small  cloud   would  grow    a    storm 
which  would  cost  the  lives  of  the  dearest  friends  that 
he  had. 

On  the  conclusion  of  the  peace  Charles  went  to 
Italy  to  be  crowned  by  the  Pope.  Sir  T.  More,  as  I 
said,  had  represented  England  at  Cambray.  Erasmus 
wrote  him  a  letter  full  of  congratulations,  full  of  ad- 
miration of  Henry  and  the  services  which  the  King  of 


Lecture  XVIII.  369 

England  has  rendered  and  would  again  render  to 
Christendom.  Erasmus's  chief  anxiety  was  for  Ferdi- 
nand, who  was  being  ground  between  the  Turks  and 
the  German  Protestants. 

TO    SIR   T.    MORE.1 

Fkeybukg,  September  5,  1520. 

Would  that  Ferdinand's  affairs  were  in  as  good  con- 
dition as  his  kiudness  deserves.  He  had  been  my  best 
friend.  Two  years  back  he  wanted  me  to  go  and  live 
with  him  at  Vienna.  Fortune  deals  cruelly  with  him 
n6w.  He  applied  for  help  to  the  Diet  of  Speyer,  and 
they  offered  him  so  little  that  he  would  not  take  it. 
The  Emperor  is  in  Italy,  staying  longer  than  I  like 
with  the  Pope.  This  colloguing  between  popes  ami 
princes  bodes  no  good  to  Christianity.  .  .  .  The 
theologians  say  I  ran  away  from  Bale  because  I  was 
afraid.  If  I  went  back  they  would  say  I  was  joining 
the  rebels.  Everyone,  even  my  opponents,  wanted  me 
to  stay,  and  my  going  was  entirely  against  my  will. 
Bale  had  been  a  nest  for  me  so  many  years,  and  there 
was  a  risk  in  moving  with  such  health  as  I  now  suffer 
from.  But  I  preferred  to  venture  my  life  rather  than 
appear  by  remaining  to  approve  of  what  had  been 
done.  With  common  prudence  the  revolution  might 
have  been  prevented.  But  a  couple  of  monks  set  the 
fire  blazing  —  one  by  a  sermon  in  the  cathedral,  and 
the  other  by  a  similar  performance  in  his  convent. 

George  of  Saxony  talks  of  encountering  Luther.  I 
might  as  well  encounter  Thraso.  I  advised  him  to  let 
Luther  alone.  My  health  is  good,  and  the  summer 
has  been  charming,  but  I  fear  for  the  autumn.  This 
place  is  half  surrounded  by  mountains,  and  scarce  a 
day  passes  without  rain. 

Erasmus's  expectations  from  the  peace  were  disap- 
pointed.    The  Emperor's  hands  were  now  free.     The 
Church  party  were  clamouring  to  him  to  lose  no  more 
1  J:'p.  mlwiv.,  abridged. 


370  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

time  and  to  interfere  with  a  high  hand  in  Germany, 
and  the  Emperor  seemed  inclined  to  gratify  them. 
The  Lutheran  States  were  arming  for  defence,  and 
war  seemed  only  to  have  ceased  with  France  to  be 
followed  by  a  furious  conflict  in  Germany. 

Septembers,  1529. 
I  fear  (Erasmus  writes  to  Mount  joy  x)  that  the  Gos- 
pel will  lead  to  a  desperate  struggle.  Germany  is  pre- 
paring for  it,  and  the  theologians  are  inflaming  the 
wound.  I  could  wish  them  a  better  mind.  I  myself 
seem  doomed  like  Hercules  to  be  fighting  monsters 
all  my  life,  and  weary  I  am  of  it.  Never  since  the 
world  began  was  such  an  age ;  everywhere  smoke  and 
steam.  I  trust  Cardinal  Campegio  has  dispersed  that 
small  cloud  you  wot  of.2 

Campegio,  as  you  know,  did  not  disperse  that  small 
cloud,  and  the  news  from  England  became  so  inter- 
esting as  to  make  Erasmus  forget  for  a  moment  the 
sins  of  the  theologians.  Wolsey  was  dismissed  from 
the  chancellorship.  The  seals  were  given  to  Sir 
Thomas  More,  and  Parliament  was  summoned  to  begin 
the  movement  which  was  to  sever  England  from  the 
Roman  communion.  Campegio  had  argued,  implored, 
entreated  ;  Catherine  had  remained  inexorable.  The 
Emperor,  relying,  perhaps,  on  the  assurances  of  the 
ambassador  that  the  English  nation  would  stand  by 
the  Queen,  forbade  the  Pope  to  keep  his  promise  to 
Henry;  and  the  question  rose  whether  a  supreme 
judge  of  Christendom,  who  was  allowing  himself  to  be 
controlled  by  an  earthly  monarch  in  a  cause  of  politi- 
cal importance,  could  be  permitted  to  retain  a  power 
which  he  could  no  longer  use  impartially.  At  all 
events,  respect  for  such  a  pope  was  no  longer  to  delay 
the  reform  in  England  of  the  abuses  which  had  thrown 

1  Ep.  mlxxvii.  2  The  divorce. 


Lecture  XVIII.  371 

Germany  into  revolution.  In  England  there  was  the 
same  simony,  the  same  papal  exactions,  the  same 
pluralism,  fortified  by  purchased  dispensations  from 
Rome.  Wolsey  held  three  bishoprics  and  the  wealthi- 
est of  the  English  abbeys.  In  England  there  were 
the  same  convocations,  passing  laws,  without  consent 
of  Parliament,  to  bind  the  laity;  the  same  Church 
courts  to  enforce  such  laws,  the  same  arbitrary  im- 
prisonments, the  same  complicated  plunder  in  the 
name  of  religion,  the  same  sales  of  pardons  and  indul- 
gences, the  same  ruinous  appeals  to  Rome  in  every 
cause  which  could  be  construed  as  spiritual,  the  same 
extortions  supported  by  excommunication,  which,  if 
disobeyed,  passed  into  a  charge  of  heresy;  the  same 
exemption  from  the  control  of  the  common  law,  which 
the  clergy  claimed  in  virtue  of  their  order ;  the  same 
unblushing  disregard  of  the  common  duties  of  moral- 
ity, encouraged  by  impunity  for  vice. 

The  endurance  of  the  laity  had  been  long  exhausted, 
and  the  quarrel  with  the  Pope  gave  an  opportunity 
for  Parliament  to  take  in  hand  a  reform  for  which 
the  whole  nation  clamoured.  The  German  Diet  had 
drawn  up  a  list  of  wrongs,  their  Centum  Grani- 
mina  against  the  clergy,  and  had  demanded  redress. 
Erasmus,  Sir  T.  More,  Charles  V.  himself,  every 
open-minded  layman  in  Europe,  knew  reform  to  be 
necessary.  The  fall  of  Wolsey,  who  had  been  the 
embodiment  of  the  detested  system,  was  a  signal  for 
the  fall  also  of  the  temporal  power  of  the  olergy. 
Lord  Darcy,  the  most  Catholic  noble  in  England, 
the  special  friend  of  Charles  V.,  the  future  lemlrr  of 
the  Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  took  the  lead  in  drawing  u)> 
Wolsey's  attainder,  and  the  famous  Parliament  of 
1529  began  its  work  of  legal  revolution  amidst  the 
sh licks  of  the  hierarchy. 


372  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Henry  VIII.,  with  the  help  of  his  people,  was  doing 
precisely  what  Erasmus  had  himself  urged  on  Adrian 
and  Clement  as  necessary  and  inevitable ;  and  it  was 
no  little  joy  to  Erasmus  to  see  his  friend  More  elected 
to  preside  over  such  a  work  in  the  House  of  Lords. 
Unfortunately,  his  own  best  friends  in  England  were 
divided.  The  Duke  of  Norfolk  succeeded  Wolsey  as 
Prime  Minister,  Sir  Thomas  More  was  Chancellor, 
and  both  were  strong  for  moderate  reform.  Fisher, 
Warham,  Tunstall,  the  bishops  generally,  felt  in- 
stinctively that  far-reaching  changes  lay  behind  these, 
beginnings,  and  resisted  to  the  utmost  of  their  power. 
The  opposition  to  Church  reform  combined  by  de- 
grees with  the  opposition  to  the  divorce.  Catherine's 
cause  became  identified  with  the  Church.  Other  ele- 
ments of  discontent  soon  swelled  her  party,  and  Cath- 
erine herself  became  a  secret  centre  of  political  dis- 
affection. A  vast  conspiracy  sprung  up,  organised  by 
Erasmus's  old  antagonists  the  monks  and  theologians, 
and,  as  the  quarrel  with  the  Church  developed  into  a 
quarrel  with  the  Pope,  it  took  definite  and  dangerous 
shape.  Henry  was  to  be  excommunicated  and  de- 
posed ;  the  peers  of  the  old  faction  of  the  White  Rose 
were  to  take  the  field  again.  Every  monastery  in 
England  became  a  nest  of  mutiny,  and  every  friar  a 
preacher  of  sedition. 

The  King  knew  what  was  going  on,  but  did  not 
choose  to  be  frightened  by  it.  Parliament  pro- 
ceeded with  its  work  session  after  session.  Conspir- 
acy went  on  simultaneously  —  Catherine  acquiescent 
and  at  last  encouraging.  A  Spanish  army  was  to  be 
landed  with  the  Pope's  blessing  in  the  eastern  coun- 
ties. The  peers  and  gentry  were  to  take  arms.  The 
monasteries  were  to  find  the  money.  Sir  T.  More  fell 
back  to  the  Catholic  side  in  his  hatred  of  Lutheranism, 


Lecture  XVIII.  373 

and  the  danger  grew  like  the  prophet's  gourd.  Henry 
armed  the  English  Commons,  built  a  fleet,  and  passed 
the  statutes  which  still  remain  as  the  charter  of  the 
spiritual  liberties  of  the  English  laity. 

Events  moved  fast.  In  six  years  the  authority  of 
Rome  was  abolished.  The  Crown  of  England  was  de- 
clared independent  of  all  foreign  power,  supreme  in 
all  causes,  ecclesiastical  and  civil,  within  its  own  do- 
minions. Warham  died  of  grief ;  More  and  Fisher 
fell  on  the  scaffold  ;  the  monasteries  were  peremptorily 
abolished  and  the  rebellion  crushed. 

Erasmus  lived  to  see  all  this  beginning.  He  hoped 
as  it  proceeded  that  each  step  would  be  the  last  ;  that 
the  Pope  would  be  wise  in  time ;  that  England,  which 
he  had  loved  so  well,  might  be  spared  the  convulsions 
which  he  saw  hanging  over  Germany.  On  the  divorce 
case  itself  he  thought  that  Henry  was  justified  in  de- 
manding a  separation  ;  or  at  any  rate  that  the  will  of 
a  single  woman  ought  not  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
interests  of  Europe.  England,  however,  was  far  away. 
In  England  he  could  neither  act  nor  advise.  His  own 
immediate  concern  was  with  the  coming  crisis  in 
Germany. 

Charles,  having  consulted  with  the  Pope,  seemed  to 
have  resolved  on  decisive  action.  He  summoned  the 
Diet  to  meet  at  Augsburg  to  take  into  consideration 
the  condition  of  the  country.  Both  sides  had  armed, 
and  were  prepared  to  fight  if  the  Diet  failed.  Among 
the  Germans  the  Lutheran  party  were  the  strongest  ; 
but  behind  the  Catholics  was  the  Spanish  army,  if 
Charles  pleased  to  use  it.  Erasmus  regretted  that  he 
had  been  unable  to  be  present  at  Worms.  I  [e  perhaps 
felt  that  he  ought  to  make  a  stronger  effort  to  attend 
at  Augsburg,  but  he  found  an  excuse  in  failing  health. 


374  Life,  unci  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

TO    CUTHBERT   TUNSTALL.1 

January  31,  1530. 

So  far  the  battle  has  been  fought  with  books  and 
pamphlets.  We  are  coming  now  to  guns  and  halberts. 
If  I  cared  less  for  my  soul  than  my  body  I  would 
rather  be  with  the  Lutherans ;  but  I  will  not  forsake 
the  one  Church  with  death  now  close  on  me  in  the 
shape  of  a  stone  in  my  bladder.  Were  Augustine  to 
preach  here  now  as  he  preached  in  Africa,  he  would 
be  as  ill-spoken  of  as  Erasmus.  I  could  find  600  pas- 
sages in  Augustine,  and  quite  as  many  in  St.  Paul, 
which  would  now  be  called  heretical.  I  am  but  a  sheep ; 
but  a  sheep  may  bleat  when  the  Gospel  is  being  de- 
stroyed. Theologians,  schoolmen,  and  monks  fancy  that 
in  what  they  are  doing  they  strengthen  the  Church. 
They  are  mistaken.  Fire  is  not  quenched  by  fire.  The 
tyranny  of  the  Court  of  Rome  and  a  set  of  scandalous 
friars  set  the  pile  alight,  and  they  are  pouring  on  oil  to 
put  it  out.  As  to  More,  I  am  pleased  to  hear  of  his  pro- 
motion. I  do  not  congratulate  him  personally,  but  I 
congratulate  Britain  and,  indirectly,  myself.  It  is 
hoped  that  the  Emperor's  authority  will  end  the  Ger- 
man schism.  I  trust,  at  any  rate,  that  there  will  be  no 
bloodshed,  that  the  victory  will  be  to  Christ's  honour, 
and  that  we  shall  not  have  papal  officials  and  monks 
in  power  again.  The  clergy  are  thinking  only  of  re- 
venge, and  not  the  least  of  amending  their  lives. 

The  excitement  grew  as  the  Augsburg  Diet  drew 
near.  The  extreme  faction  was  in  power  at  Rome ; 
Erasmus's  friends  there  were  in  the  shade ;  and  he 
himself,  as  he  heard  to  his  alarm  and  sorrow,  was  out 
of  favour  in  the  highest  quarter.  He  could  not  under- 
stand why.  He  thought  himself  peculiarly  meritorious 
in  having  held  aloof  from  Luther,  and  now  the  Pope 
was  listening  to  people  who  told  him  that  Erasmus 

1  Ep.  nixcii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XVIII.  375 

was  at  the  bottom  of  all  that  had  gone  wrong.  He 
wrote  at  great  length  to  the  Papal  Secretary  to  coin- 
plain. 

TO   SADOLET.1 

March  7,  1530. 

Do  you  think  (he  said)  that  I  could  ever  have  con- 
nected myself  with  a  miserable  mob  ?     I  have  been  a 
better  friend  to  the  Church  than  those  who  are  for 
stamping   the   fire   out   by   force.     I   name   no  one. 
Some  of  them  are  friends  of  my  own,  but  they  have 
done  no  good  that  I  can  see.     The  result  so  far  is  to 
add  to  the  niunber  of  their  enemies  and  to  drive  the 
Germans  into  a  league.     God  grant  I  prove  a  false 
prophet ;  but  if  you  see  the  Catholic  Church  brought 
to  wreck  in  Germany,  remember  that  Erasmus  fore- 
told it.     The  first  mistake  was  to  neglect   Luther's 
protest  against   indulgences ;  the   next,  when   things 
grew  serious,  to  appeal  to  popidar  clamour  and  leave 
the  defence  to  monks — men  orhi  fere  i?ivisos,  hated 
of   all  the  world.     Luther's  books  were  burnt  when 
they  ought  to  have  been  read  and  studied  by  earnest 
and    serious  persons.     There  was  too  much  haste  to 
persecute  ;  we  tolerate  Jews  and  Bohemians,  we  might 
have  borne  with  Luther.     Time  cures  disorders  which 
nothing  else  will  cure.     I  said  all  this,  but  no  one  at- 
tended to  me.     I  was  called  the  friend  of  schismatics. 
Then   came   Aleander   with   the    Pope's    bull.       He 
thought  wonders  of  himself  —  burnt  more  books,  filled 
the  air  with  smoke,  and  went  about  with  the  Emperor 
threatening  right  and  left.     He  would  have  laid  hold 
on  me  if  the  Emperor  had  not  protected  me.     Another 
eminent  person  declared  war  on  me  at  Rome  —  said  I 
had  no  learning  and    no   judgment.     When    I   com- 
plained, it  appeared  he  had  read  nothing  that  I  had 
written.     I  have  still  hopes.     These  trials  may  be  for 
our   good    in   the  end  and  turn  to  the  glory  of  the 
Church.     Other  countries  arc  in  the  same  condition 
as    Germany,  only  the  disorder  has  not   yet    broken 
i  Ej>.  inxciv.,  abridged 


376  Life  and  Letters,  of  Erasmus. 

out.     The  fever  is  fed  by  the  ferocity  of  an  interested 
faction. 

The  battle  was  now  raging  round  the  Real  Presence. 
Luther  on  this  point  had  remained  orthodox,  but  it 
was  challenged  by  the  Swiss  reformers,  and  every 
tongue  was  busy  with  it.  Again  we  listen  to  Eras- 
mus :  — 

TO    THE    BISHOP    OF   HILDESHEIM.1 

Fekyburg,  March  15,  1530. 
Innumerable  questions  are  asked  —  how  the  ele- 
ments are  transubstantiated ;  how  accidents  can  sub- 
sist without  a  subject ;  how  the  colour,  smell,  taste, 
quality,  which  are  in  the  bread  and  wine  before  it  is 
consecrated  can  remain  when  the  substance  is  changed ; 
at  what  moment  the  miracle  takes  place,  and  what  has 
happened  when  the  bread  and  wine  corrupts ;  how 
the  same  body  can  be  in  many  places  at  once,  &c. 
Such  problems  may  be  discussed  among  the  learned. 
For  the  vulgar  it  is  enough  to  believe  that  the  real 
body  and  blood  of  our  Lord  are  actually  present.  It 
is  a  mystery  to  be  approached  reverentially.  Men 
should  not  be  allowed  to  march  up  and  down  the  aisles 
or  chatter  at  the  doors  during  the  ceremony.  You  stay 
out  a  play  till  the  Valete  et  plaudite  ;  can  you  not 
wait  for  the  completion  of  a  miracle.  In  earlier  times 
there  was  but  one  celebration  in  a  day.  Now,  partly 
from  superstition,  partly  from  avarice,  the  saying  of 
masses  has  become  a  trade,  like  shoemaking  or  brick- 
laying—  a  mere  means  of  making  a  livelihood.  And 
again,  some  attention  should  be  paid  to  the  priest's 
character ;  dress  and  office  are  not  enough,  the  life 
must  answer  to  the  function.  Nowadays,  when  the 
celebration  is  over,  the  man  who  has  offered  the  sacri- 
fice adjourns  to  drinking  parties  and  loose  talk,  or  to 
cards  or  dice,  or  goes  hunting,  or  lounges  in  idleness. 
While  he  is  at  the  altar  angels  wait  upon  him  ;  when 
he  leaves  it  he  seeks  the  refuse  of  mankind.     It  is  not 

1  Ep.  raxcv. 


Lecture  XVIII.  377 

decent.     Priests  should  not  by  their  loose  living  teach 
heretics  to  despise  the  ineffable  mystery. 

Two  young  Franciscans  in  Spain  had  been  denoun- 
cing Erasmus  again.  An  enthusiastic  friend  named 
Mexia  had  been  fighting  his  battles  for  him.  Eras- 
mus often  complained  of  his  loneliness,  of  his  un- 
happy condition  between  the  points  of  the  two  angry 
factions,  of  the  inattention  which  was  paid  by  both  to 
his  advice  and  warnings.  If  the  letter  which  he 
wrote  to  Mexia  to  thank  him  for  his  exertions  is  a 
faithful  picture  of  his  actual  position,  he  ought  to  have 
been  better  satisfied  ;  for  whether  they  took  his  advice 
or  not,  the  great  people  of  the  world  seem  to  have 
been  particularly  anxious  to  hear  his  opinions. 

TO   MEXIA.1 

Freyburg,  March  30,  1530. 

Great  lords,  bishops,  abbots,  learned  men  of  whom 
I  have  never  heard,  write  daily  to  me,  to  say  nothing 
of  kings  and  princes  and  high  prelates  who  are  known 
to  all  mankind.  With  their  communications  come 
magnificent  presents.  To  the  Emperor  Charles  I  owe 
the  best  part  of  my  fortune,  and  his  loving  letters  are 
more  precious  than  his  gifts.  His  brother  Ferdinand 
writes  equally  often  to  me  and  with  equal  warmth. 
The  French  king  invites  me  to  Paris.  The  King  of 
England  writes  to  me  often  also.  The  Bishops  of 
Durham  and  Lincoln  send  me  gems  of  epistles,  so  do 
other  bishops  and  archbishops  and  princes  and  dukes. 
Antony  Fugger  sent  me  a  hundred  gold  florins  when 
he  heard  that  I  was  leaving  Bale,  and  promised  me  as 
much  more  annually  if  I  would  settle  at  Augsburg. 
Only  a  few  days  since  the  Bishop  of  Augsburg  brought 
me  two  hundred  florins  and  two  princely  drinking 
cups. 

I  have  a  room  full  of  letters  from  men  of  Learning, 

1  Ep.  mciii.,  abridged. 


378  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

nobles,  princes,  and  cardinals.  I  have  a  chest  full  of 
gold  and  silver  plate,  cups,  clocks,  and  rings  which 
have  been  presented  to  me,  and  I  had  many  more 
which  I  have  given  away  to  other  students.  Of  the 
givers,  some  are  sages ;  some  are  saints,  like  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  and  the  Bishops  of  London  and 
Rochester.  I  have  not  sought  their  liberality  ;  I  have 
always  said  that  I  had  enough  ;  yet  if  I  had  no  pen- 
sion from  the  Emperor  these  alone  would  suffice  for 
my  support.  Some  call  me,  as  you  say,  a  sower  of 
heresies,  and  deny  that  I  have  been  of  service  to  liter- 
ature. If  this  be  so,  how  came  I  by  the  favours  of  so 
many  distinguished  men?  Compare  the  world  as  it 
was  thirty  years  ago  with  the  world  as  it  is  now,  and 
then  ask  what  it  owes  to  Erasmus.  Then,  not  a  prince 
would  spend  a  farthing  on  his  son's  education ;  now 
every  one  of  them  has  a  paid  tutor  in  his  family.  The 
elder  theologians  were  against  me  always,  but  the 
younger  are  on  my  side.  Even  among  the  monks, 
some  who  began  with  cursing  are  now  taking  my 
part ;  and  finally  here  is  yourself  championing  me 
against  those  impertinent  Franciscans.  But,  my  dear 
friend,  do  not  make  the  monks  your  enemies.  They 
are  Dodona's  cauldrons ;  if  you  stir  one  you  stir  all. 
I  am  sorry  the  Observants  have  so  degenerated.  Those 
two  loquacious  lads  would  not  have  ventured  so  far 
without  encouragement  from  their  elders.  The  prob- 
lem before  us  is  how  to  heal  this  fatal  schism  with- 
out rivers  of  blood ;  and  these  youths  are  spreading 
the  fire.  Such  as  they  are  past  mending.  Let  them 
alone.  I  have  still  confidence  in  the  Emperor ;  he 
has  authority ;  he  is  pious  and  wise  ;  he  has  even 
genius  of  a  certain  kind,  and  an  Imperial  objection  to 
cruelty. 


LECTURE  XIX. 

We  have  arrived  at  the  famous  Diet  which  met  at 
Augsburg  in  the  summer  of  1530.  The  Emperor  was 
present  in  person,  with  his  brother  Ferdinand,  the 
German  princes,  the  deputies  from  the  free  cities,  the 
legate  Campegio  fresh  from  failure  in  England,  with 
his  train  of  ecclesiastical  warriors  to  defend  the  cause 
of  Holy  Church.  Luther  being  under  the  ban  of  the 
empire  could  not  be  received.  The  confession  of  the 
reformed  faith  was  drawn  and  presented  by  Philip 
Melanchthon,  and  was  accepted  by  more  than  half  the 
Diet  as  representing  their  belief.  What  would  the 
Emperor  do?  Had  there  been  no  English  problem, 
no  Catherine  to  perplex  his  action,  it  is  likely  that  he 
would  have  insisted,  as  he  afterwards  did  at  Trent,  on 
a  practical  reform  of  the  Court  of  Rome  and  the  eccle- 
siastical system,  and  have  allowed  the  Confession  of 
Augsburg  to  stand  as  an  interim  till  the  dirty  sewers 
had  been  cleared  out.  But  his  hands  were  tied.  The 
Church  party  required  him  to  put  the  Lutherans 
down  with  fire  and  sword.  The  Pope  had  not  for- 
given the  storm  of  Rome  and  his  own  imprisonment. 
If  Charles  refused,  the  Pope  it  was  too  probable  would 
declare  for  the  divorce  and  so  try  to  recover  the  alle- 
giance of  England.  Even  had  there  been  no  Catherine, 
however,  his  situation  was  infinitely  difficult.  As 
emperor  he  was  head  of  Germany,  but  he  had  neither 
revenue  nor  army  sa\e  what  he  could  raise  in  his  own 
hereditary  dominions;  and   these   by   his   coronation 


380  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

oath  lie  was  bound  not  to  employ  without  the  Diet's 
consent  inside  the  limits  of  the  empire.  He  hated  the 
very  thought  of  a  religious  civil  war,  yet  he  was  re- 
sponsible for  order.  The  reforming  States  had  set 
aside  the  old  laws,  altered  the  religious  services,  abol- 
ished bishops  and  bishops'  courts,  suppressed  the 
monasteries,  seized  and  confiscated  the  inviolable 
property  of  the  Church.  When  the  Church  appealed 
to  him  for  protection,  how  was  he  to  refuse  ? 

He  was  received  immediately  on  his  arrival  at  Augs- 
burg with  a  silent  intimation  of  what  lay  before  him. 
He  was  sitting  at  dinner  with  his  brother  Ferdinand 
when  he  was  informed  that  a  company  of  players 
wished  to  perform  before  him.  They  were  admitted. 
The  action  was  in  dumb  show.  A  man  in  a  doctor's 
dress  brought  in  a  bundle  of  sticks,  some  straight,  some 
crooked,  laid  them  on  the  hearth,  and  retired.  On 
his  back  was  written  "  Reuchlin."  Another  followed 
who  tried  to  arrange  the  sticks  side  by  side,  could  not 
do  it,  grew  impatient,  and  retired  also.  He  was 
called  Erasmus.  An  Augustinian  monk  came  next 
with  a  burning  chafing-dish,  flung  the  crooked  sticks 
into  the  fire,  and  blew  into  it  to  make  it  blaze.  This 
was  Luther.  A  fourth  came  robed  as  an  emperor  ;  he, 
seeing  the  fire  spreading,  tried  to  put  it  out  with  his 
sword,  and  made  it  flame  the  faster.  He,  too,  went  off, 
and  then  appeared  a  figure  in  pontifical  robe  and  with 
triple  crown,  who  started  at  the  sight  of  the  fire, 
looked  about,  saw  two  cans  in  the  room,  one  full  of 
water  the  other  of  oil,  snatched  the  oil  by  mistake, 
poured  it  on,  and  raised  such  a  blaze  that  he  fled  in 
terror.     This  was  Leo  X. 

Erasmus  was  not  present  at  the  Diet ;  perhaps  he 
could  not  be  ;  but  the  Emperor  knew  what  he  thought ; 
and  the  mummers  had  given  a  sufficiently  just  repre- 


Lecture  XIX.  381 

sentation  of  his  attitude.  Erasmus  wished  the  sticks 
to  lie  side  by  side.  He  was  for  toleration  and  conces- 
sion, the  Church  rides  for  uniformity  to  be  relaxed, 
the  demands  of  the  laity  to  be  satisfied  as  far  as  might 
be  without  a  schism,  the  clergy  to  be  allowed  to  many, 
the  Church  land  question  to  be  settled  by  a  compro- 
mise ;  while,  as  to  doctrine,  the  ancient  Articles  of 
Faith,  on  which  all  parties  were  agreed,  were  a  suffi- 
cient basis  for  communion.  On  the  new  questions 
over  which  the  world  was  quarrelling  —  the  Real  Pres- 
ence, the  priesthood,  justification,  predestination,  free 
will,  grace,  merits,  and  the  rest  of  it,  men  might  be 
allowed  to  think  as  they  pleased  without  ceasing  to 
be  Christians  or  splitting  into  separate  communities. 
Time  and  moderation  would  settle  these  problems,  as 
they  settled  all  others ;  the  worst  possible  course  would 
be  for  one  party  to  thrust  its  own  opinions  by  force 
down  the  throat  of  the  other. 

A  few  wise  men,  the  Emperor  among  them,  thought 
as  Erasmus  did.  Alas,  it  required  two  centuries  of 
fighting,  and  another  century  of  jealousy  and  suspicion, 
before  mankind  generally  could  be  brought  to  accept 
what  seems  now  so  obvious  a  truth.  Erasmus  watched 
the  Diet  from  his  sick  bed,  and  wrote  his  thoughts 
about  it  to  his  friends. 

TO    PHILIP   MELANCHTIION.1 

Eta  >  i.i  bg,  July  7,  1530. 
You  may  hold  ten  Diets,  but  only  God  can  ravel 
out  these  complications.  I  can  do  nothing.  Anyone 
who  proposes  ;i  reasonable  composition  is  called  a 
Lutheran,  and  that  is  all  which  he  gains.  1  have  been 
ill  these  three  months  —  suffering,  sick-,  and  misera- 
ble. Medicine  made  me  worse,  hirst  I  had  a  violent, 
pain  ;  then  came  a  hard  swelling  down  my  right  side 

1  Ep.  mew  ii. 


382  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

to  the  groin,  gathering  at  last  at  the  pit  of  my  stomach, 
as  if  a  snake  had  my  navel  in  his  teeth  and  was  coiled 
round  the  umbilicus.  Shooting  pangs  continued  so 
that  I  could  neither  eat  nor  sleep,  nor  write  nor  dic- 
tate. The  surgeon  nearly  blistered  me  to  death  ;  at 
length  the  tumour  was  cut  open,  sleep  returned,  and 
I  was  relieved.  Now  I  crawl  about  feebly,  but  am 
not  out  of  the  doctor's  hands. 

TO   RINCKIUS.1 

I  hear  that  three  points  have  been  proposed  at  the 
Diet :  the  Germans  to  help  in  driving  back  the  Turks  ; 
the  religious  quarrel  to  be  made  up  peaceably  ;  and 
the  injuries  to  the  Catholics  to  be  examined  into  and 
redressed.  I  cannot  guess  what  will  come  of  it,  and 
unless  the  reformed  States  hold  together  there  will  be 
fighting  yet.  Some  think  terms  will  be  made.  The 
Lutheran  demands  are  moderate,  and  the  Pope  is 
ready  to  make  concessions.  Campegio  is  for  mild 
measures,  and  has  thrice  written  to  me  from  Augs- 
burg. The  Bishop  of  Augsburg  is  also  for  yielding 
something,  and  is  of  course  reviled  as  a  heretic,  though 
one  of  the  best  of  men.  Melanchthon  writes  that  he 
does  not  despair.  Many  think  I  ought  to  be  there; 
but  the  Emperor  has  not  sent  for  me,  and  if  he  does 
I  am  too  ill  to  go.  Some  say  the  Emperor  will  merely 
ask  for  money,  refer  the  doctrines  to  the  next  general 
council,  and  put  off  the  priests  and  bishops  and  monks 
and  abbots  who  have  been  plundered  with  bona  verba. 
You  will  have  seen  the  Lutheran  libels  against  myself 
and  recognized  the  author.  Who  would  have  thought 
the  drunken  scamp  had  so  much  venom  in  him  !  This 
sort  of  thing  sets  me  against  the  whole  party.  They 
will  not  allow  that  man  has  a  free  will,  and  yet  they 
hate  those  who  do  not  agree  with  them.  Some  tell 
me  not  to  read  these  things ;  others  about  the  Em- 
peror say  I  ought  to  answer,  and  sharply.  I  know 
not  how  it  will  be.  I  am  ill  and  old  and  worn  out, 
and  want  to  be  at  rest. 

1  Ep.  mexxiv.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XIX.  383 

MELANCHTHON   TO   ERASMUS.1 

August  1,  1530. 
You  would  not  believe  there  was  such  fury  in  man 
as  is  shown  by  the  papal  advocates.  They  see  the 
Emperor  and  his  brother  are  for  moderation,  and  they 
want  to  force  them  into  violence.  You,  I  understand, 
warn  him  against  listening  to  them,  and  I  hope  your 
words  will  weigh  with  him.  Continue  your  good  work, 
and  deserve  the  thanks  of  posterity  ;  you  cannot  use 
your  influence  to  better  purpose.  We  have  given  in 
our  own  views  without  condemning  others.  We  are 
told  our  concessions  are  too  late  ;  but  we  wish  to  show 
that  we  desire  peace  if  we  can  have  it  on  fair  condi- 
tions. Great  changes  are  plainly  imminent.  God 
grant  our  rulers  may  be  so  guided  that  the  Church  is 
not  wrecked  in  the  process.  Again  I  beseech  you,  for 
Christ's  sake,  do  not  let  the  Emperor  declare  war 
against  quiet  citizens  who  are  willing  to  accept  fair 
conditions. 

The  Bishop  of  Augsburg  exerted  himself  for  peace, 
and  was,  of  course,  execrated  by  the  Church  party. 
Erasmus  advised  him  to  pay  no  heed  to  the  bite  of 
reptiles.  But,  on  the  whole,  the  news  from  Augsburg 
was  not  encouraging.  Clement,  if  he  was  ever  mod- 
erate, was  now  urging  extremities,  and  Charles  could 
not  break  with  him.  It  became  clear  that  he  meant 
to  insist  on  submission,  and  the  reforming  leaders  let 
him  see  that  they  were  in  earnest  on  their  side.  They 
drew  together  in  a  bond  fur  mutual  defence, protesting 
(hence  the  name  Protestant)  that  they  would  have  no 
lies  forced  on  them  at  the  sword's  point.  Erasmus 
tried  his  eloquence  on  Campegio : 2  — 

August  IS,  1680. 

If  the  Emperor  is  only  putting  <>n  a  brag,  well  and 
good  ;  if  he  means  war  in  earnest,  I  am  sorry  t«>  he  a 

*  Ep.  mcxxv.  2  Ep.  nixcxi\. 


384  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

bird  of  ill  omen,  but  I  am  in  consternation  at  the 
thought  of  it.  The  spirit  of  revolt  has  gone  far.  I 
myself  admit  the  Emperor's  supremacy  in  Germany, 
but  others  do  not,  save  under  conditions  where  they 
rather  command  than  obey.  His  own  dominions  are 
exhausted.  Friesland  is  now  disturbed,  and  they  say 
the  Duke  has  turned  Lutheran.  The  free  cities  are 
Lutheran,  and  the  chain  reaches  from  Denmark  to 
Switzerland.  If  the  Emperor  becomes  the  servant  of 
the  Pope  he  will  not  find  many  to  go  along  with  him, 
and  we  are  looking  daily  for  an  invasion  of  Turks 
whom  we  can  barely  resist  when  united.  I  know  that 
the  Emperor  is  personally  for  peace ;  yet  it  seems  his 
fate  to  be  always  fighting.  The  fire  is  breaking  out 
again  in  Italy,  as  if  the  world  was  to  be  drowned  in 
blood  ;  and  as  if  the  whole  Church  might  be  ruined  in 
the  process.  The  people  generally  regard  the  dispute 
as  if  it  affected  merely  the  interests  of  Popes,  bishops, 
and  abbots.  The  question  is  nqt  what  the  sectarians 
deserve,  but  what  course  with  them  is  expedient  for 
Europe.  Toleration  may  be  a  misfortune,  yet  a  less 
misfortune  than  war.  For  myself,  I  would  gladly  be 
beyond  the  Alps.  The  Emperor  has  those  about  him 
who  bear  me  no  good  will. 

Again,  to  another  great  person  : 1  — 

September  1,  1530. 

Unless  I  am  far  mistaken,  there  will  be  blood  shed 
in  Germany.  The  Lutherans  have  given  in  their  Arti- 
cles. The  Emperor  will  do  as  the  Pope  wishes,  and 
forbid  all  change  in  what  has  been  once  decreed.  He 
does  indeed  promise  reform,  but  the  property  taken 
from  the  bishops  and  priests  is  to  be  restored.  It  is 
possible,  if  the  Pope  is  moderate,  that  things  may  not 
turn  out  as  I  fear.  But  just  now  the  Pope  is  busy 
making  new  cardinals  for  his  body-guard,  ahd  I  doubt 
if  that  will  much  advantage  him.  There  were  cardi- 
nals enough  already,  swallowing  bishoprics  and  abbeys. 

1  Ep.  mcxxvii. 


Lecture  XIX.  385 

Alas !  however,  when  the  Emperor  shows  a  wish  to 
be  moderate,  the  Evangelicals  cry  the  louder  for 
war.  They  spatter  him  and  the  Catholic  princes  with 
libels.  They  threaten  retaliation  if  the  professors  of 
the  Gospel  are  persecuted.  A  scandalous  caricature 
of  the  Emperor  has  been  published  with  seven  heads. 

Again : 1  — 

September  6,  1530. 
You  would  think  they  were  celebrating-  the  mysteries 
of  Bona  Dea  at  the  Diet.  No  one  knows  what  is  do- 
ing there.  If  the  Emperor  gives  way  the  others  will 
cry  that  they  have  beaten  him,  and  there  will  be  no 
bearing  them,  while  the  monks  will  be  equally  intol- 
erable if  they  have  the  Emperor  on  their  side. 

And  once  more  to  Campegio  : 2  — 

September  7, 1530. 

Peace  was  rather  a  wish  than  a  hope.  Now  there 
is  nothing  left  but  to  pray  Christ  to  wake  and  still 
the  waves.  God  may  yet  prevent  the  Emperor  from 
making  war  on  Christians.  The  Turks  are  in  the 
field,  and  will  be  too  many  for  us  if  we  fight  among 
ourselves.  Once  let  a  civil  war  begin  and  none  can 
guess  what  will  come  of  it.  I  would  have  been  present 
at  the  Diet  could  I  have  been  of  use  there,  though  I 
have  good  friends  who  would  stab  me  in  the  back  were 
I  engaged  with  an  enemy.  If  trouble  comes  I  shall 
be  the  first  victim  ;  but  I  will  bear  anything  before  I 
forsake  the  Church.  I  never  made  a  party  or  gath- 
ered disciples  about  me,  and  I  have  deserved  better 
tivatnient  than  I  have  met  with.  I  can  acknowledge 
this  to  you,  in  whom  I  have  always  found  a  kind 
friend  and  patron.  The  past  cannot  be  recalled,  but 
you  may  do  something  in  future  to  save  me  from 
scandalous  accusations. 

And,  the  same  day,  to  the  Bishop  of  Trent:3  — 

I  am  at  the  lust  act  of  the  play,  and  have  now  only 
to  say,  Valete  etplaudite.     I  can  leave  the  stage  with 

1  Ep.  mexxvi.  -  /',<•   aw  oexvii.  Ep.  mexxxix. 


386  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

a  quiet  mind  if  the  Emperor  and  the  princes  and 
bishops  can  still  this  storm  without  spilling  blood. 
The  worst  side  often  wins  in  the  field,  and  to  kill 
one's  fellow-creatures  needs  no  great  genius;  but  to 
calm  a  tempest  by  prudence  and  judgment  is  a  worthy 
achievement  indeed. 

It  was  not  without  reason  that  Erasmus  was  heavy 
at  heart.  He  was  worried  by  the  attacks  of  the  Lu- 
therans. The  Catholics  meant  to  be  revenged  on 
him  when  their  time  came.  He  had  prophesied  that 
he  would  be  the  first  victim,  and  the  prophecy  seemed 
likely  to  be  fulfilled.  While  the  Diet  was  still  sit- 
ting an  edict  was  announced,  commanding  the  restora- 
tion of  the  Catholic  services  through  Germany,  the 
restoration  of  the  Church  property,  and  the  reversal 
of  all  that  had  been  done.  The  Dominican  Eck, 
Luther's  first  and  most  violent  antagonist,  wrote,  in 
the  glow  of  triumph,  an  exulting  and  insolent  letter 
to  Erasmus,  telling  him  that  he  ought  to  be  ashamed 
of  himself,  but  offering  to  be  again  his  friend  if  he 
would  recant  his  sins.  Eck's  impertinence  was  too 
intolerable.  If  the  Protestant  League  meant  to  fight, 
there  would  be  a  bloody  struggle  before  the  edict 
could  be  executed,  and  Erasmus  feared  that  he  might 
be  in  the  centre  of  the  storm.  He  thought  of  flying 
to  France,  and  would  have  gone  had  not  a  letter  from 
the  Emperor  recommended,  and  almost  commanded, 
him  to  remain  at  Freyburg. 

Others  (he  writes  to  the  Abbot  of  Barbara  2)  give 
me  the  same  advice,  and  I  reluctantly  obey.  Winter 
is  coming  on.  The  plague  is  raging,  and  it  is  uncer- 
tain how  long  the  Diet  will  last.  The  Zwinglians 
were  refused  a  hearing.  The  Lutherans  presented 
their  Articles,  which  were  briefly  replied   to.     The 

1  Ep.  mcxlvii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XIX.  387 

Diet  being  unable  to  decide,  representatives  of  both 
sides  were  chosen  to  arrange  a  concordat.  The  num- 
bers being  too  large,  a  small  committee  was  selected 
of  the  most  distinguished  men  to  try  what  they  could 
do.  They  might  have  succeeded,  but  the  Lutheran 
princes  refused  to  restore  the  Church  lands  or  to 
force  their  clergy  to  abandon  their  wives.  The  Em- 
peror then  said  that  the  cities  which  had  adopted  the 
new  opinions  must  conform  within  six  months,  and  he 
used  two  expressions  which  offended  the  princes  of 
the  religion.  He  called  the  Lutherans  a  sect,  and  he 
added  that  their  arguments  had  been  refuted  out  of 
Scripture.  This  they  fiercely  denied.  They  said,  in 
the  Emperor's  presence,  that  they  not  only  believed, 
but  I- new  their  doctrine  to  be  both  Scriptural  and 
Apostolic. 

The  Emperor  was  angry ;  the  princes  withdrew. 
The  edict  came  out  immediately  after. 

The  Emperor's  award  (Erasmus  writes)  will  lead 
to  war.  He  is  powerful  —  we  know  that.  But  the 
people  everywhere  are  for  the  new  doctrines,  and  will 
rise  at  the  first  signal.  There  might  still  be  hope  if 
the  Pope  trusted  in  Christ.  Alas !  he  trusts  more  in 
his  cardinals  and  the  Emperor's  armies,  and  in  those 
wicked  monks  whose  depravity  has  caused  the  whole 
disturbance. 

He  evidently  thought  that  the  Lutherans  had  been 
too  exacting.  Knowing  Chai'les's  real  inclinations, 
he  believed  that,  if  they  had  shown  more  forbearance, 
his  own  scheme  for  a  reconciliation  might  have  been 
gradually  allowed.  Why  that  could  not  be,  why  pro- 
posals so  sensible  and  reasonable  were  nevertheless 
entirely  impossible,  may  be  explained  by  Luther  him- 
self, who,  it  is  to  be  remembered,  was  always  opposed 
to  armed  resistance  :  — 

Concord   of   faith   is   one   thing,   and   eonoord    of 


388  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

charity   is   another.     In   charity   we   have  not   been 
wanting-.     We  have  been  ready  to  do  and  suffer  any- 
thing   except    renounce   our    faith.     We    have    not 
thirsted  for  the  blood  of  our  opponents.     We  stood 
by  them  in  the  peasant  wars  against  rebels  and  fana- 
tics.    We  did  more  to  protect  them  than  they  did  for 
themselves ;  and   the  anarchists  hate   us  worse   than 
they  hate  the  Papists.     Yet  the  Papists  wish  to  kill 
us  because  we  will  not  place  human  tradition  on  a 
level  with  God's  Word.     God  judge  between  us  and 
them !     It  is  vain  for  Erasmus  to  argue  for  concord 
in  faith  on  the  principle  that  each  party  shall  make 
concessions.     In  the  first  place,  our  enemies  will  con- 
cede nothing.     They  defend  every  point  of  their  posi- 
tion, and   insist   now   on    doctrines  which  they  con- 
demned themselves  before  the  movement  began.    But, 
once  for  all,  we  can  allow  nothing  which  contradicts 
Scripture.     Charity  may   yield,    for  charity  aims  at 
correcting  faults  which  may  be  amended,  and  wrestles 
only  with  flesh  and  blood.     Faith  wrestles  with  spirits 
of  evil,  desperately  wicked,  of  whose  conversion  there 
is    no    hope.     There    can   be    no   peace  between  the 
truth  of  God  and  the  doctrine  of  devils.     It  is  said 
the  Papists  profess  Christ's  Gospel,   and  deny  that 
their  doctrine  is  of   the   devil.     Yes,  they  jrrofess; 
but  the  tree  is  known  by  its  fruits.     They  cry,  "  The 
Church,  the  Church  !  "  and  by  the  Church  they  mean 
a  body  presumed  to  have  divine  authority,  while  the 
members  of  it  lead  impious  and  wicked  lives.     Eras- 
mus must  think  as  they  do  of  the  Church,  for  he  says 
he  will  submit  to  what  the  Church  shall  decide.     If 
the    Church   is   what  they  say,  where  is  the  use   of 
Scripture?     Why  do  we  risk  our  lives  for  what  we 
believe  to  be  Truth  when  we  may  be  all  saved  com- 
pendiously  in   a  single   ship   by  receiving    what  the 
Papists  teach?     What  will  you  do  with  pious  souls 
who  take  Scripture  as  the  Word  of  God,  and  cannot 
believe    what  contradicts  Scripture?     Will  you  say, 
"  We  want  peace,  and  therefore  you  must  submit  to 
the  Pope  "  ?  or,  "  The  Pope  has  not  decided  on  this 


Lecture  XIX.  389 

point  or  that,  and  therefore  opinion  is  free  "  ?  A  man 
who  fears  God,  who  seeks  life  eternal,  and  fears 
eternal  death,  cannot  rest  on  undecided  or  dubious 
doctrines.  In  my  work  on  "  The  Bondage  of  the 
Will"  I  condemned  the  scepticism  of  Erasmian 
theology.  Christians  require  certainty,  definite  dog- 
mas, a  sure  Word  of  God  which  they  can  trust  to  live 
and  die  by.  For  such  certainty  Erasmus  cares  not. 
The  Papists  do  not  teach  it.  They  cannot  teach  what 
they  cannot  understand.  Therefore  we  can  have  no 
agreement  with  them.  No  Church  can  stand  without 
the  anchor  of  faith,  and  faith  stands  on  the  Word  of 
God.  The  Papists  and  Erasmus  may  consult.  It 
will  avail  nothing.  Human  devices  will  not  serve. 
The  pious  soul  listens  for  the  voice  of  the  Bride- 
groom, their  Shepherd  and  their  Master.  Contro- 
versies may  rise  where  the  meaning  of  Scripture  is 
uncertain.  I  speak  not  of  those.  I  speak  of  doctrines 
and  practices  which  are  outside  Scripture  or  against 
Scripture,  yet  are  insisted  on  by  our  adversaries. 
They  are  not  heresies,  which  are  perversions  of  Scrip- 
ture. They  are  profane,  and  therefore  of  the  devil. 
Erasmus  should  leave  theology  alone,  and  give  his 
mind  to  other  subjects.  Theology  demands  serious- 
ness and  sincerity  of  heart,  and  love  for  God's  Word. 
We  have  suffered  enough  under  the  Papacy,  driven 
about  with  shifting  winds  of  doctrine,  believing  in 
lies,  coming  at  last  to  adore  the  monk's  hood  and  to 
be  worse  idolaters  than  the  heathen.  Those  who  pre- 
tend that  the  Church  may  decree  Articles  of  Faith 
not  found  in  Scripture  make  tin;  Church  a  synagogue 
of  Satan,  and  set  up  a  devil's  harlot  for  the  Virgin 
Bride  of  Christ.  If  God  gives  me  strength,  I  trust 
to  deal  more  fully  with  all  this:  but  while  the  devil's 
kingdom  stands  it  is  idle  to  look  for  concord  in 
doctrine. 

Compromise  with  such  a  spirit  was  obviously  im- 
possible. "Certainty,"  no  doubt,  is  the  pearl  of  price 
for  which  a  man  will  sell  all  that  he  lias.      Those  who 


390  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

have  it  have  it,  and,  as  Cardinal  Newman  tells  ns,  can- 
not doubt  that  they  have  it.  Unfortunately,  of  two 
honest  disputants  each  is  often  equally  without  doubt. 
Cardinal  Newman  finds  his  "  certainty "  where  Lu- 
ther finds  a  synagogue  of  Satan.  Newman  finds 
heresy  where  Luther  has  his  sure  Word  of  Christ. 
Between  such  opposites  the  only  argument  which  will 
convince  is  a  broken  head ;  and  the  reformers  needed 
swords  tempered  in  a  hotter  furnace  than  Erasmian 
toleration  if  they  were  to  hold  their  own  in  the  fight 
now  approaching.  You  can  tolerate  what  will  tolerate 
you.  Popery  demanded  submission  at  the  sword's 
point,  and  could  only  be  encountered  with  the  sword. 
Reason  is  no  match  for  convictions  which  do  not  rise 
out  of  reason ;  and  Rome  would  have  trampled  oppo- 
sition under  its  foot  if  it  had  not  been  met  with  a 
conviction  passionate  as  its  own. 

Erasmus  could  but  remain  on  his  solitary  watch- 
tower,  a  spectator  of  a  struggle  which  he  was  power- 
less to  influence.  Happily  for  him,  the  circumstances 
of  the  time  postponed  for  his  own  lifetime  the  inevi- 
table collision,  and  permitted  him  to  hope  till  his 
death.  The  Protestant  League  closed  their  ranks : 
rather  death  than  submission  to  a  lie.  The  armies  of 
the  Crescent  hung  over  Vienna.  The  Turkish  fleet 
swept  the  Mediterranean.  France,  though  nominally 
at  peace,  was  on  the  watch  to  revenge  Pavia ;  and 
Henry  of  England,  in  his  present  humour,  might  lend 
France  a  hand  if  the  Emperor  became  the  armed 
champion  of  the  Pope.  The  Emperor's  resolution 
failed.  Clement  might  pray;  bishops  and  monks 
might  clamour ;  but  he  himself  had  no  heart  for  a 
war  of  religion,  and  as  soon  as  it  became  clear  that 
the  Lutherans  were  really  in  earnest,  the  necessities 
of  his  position  gave  him  an  excuse  for  disappointing 


Lecture  XIX.  391 

orthodox  eagerness.     Stake  and  faggot  must  wait  for 
more  favourable  times. 

Erasmus  was  not  so  destitute  of  religious  conviction 
as  Luther  thought  him.  But  to  Erasmus  religion 
meant  purity  and  justice  and  mercy,  with  the  keeping 
of  the  moral  commandments,  and  to  him  these  Graces 
were  not  the  privilege  of  any  peculiar  creed.  So  long- 
as  men  believed  in  duty  and  responsibility  to  their 
Maker,  he  supposed  that  they  might  be.  left  to  think 
for  themselves  on  theological  mysteries  without  ceas- 
ing to  be  human,  and  it  shocked  him  to  see  half  the 
world  preparing  to  destroy  one  another  on  points 
which  no  one  could  understand,  and  on  which  both 
sides  were  probably  wrong.  When  the  Diet  rose  the 
worst  seemed  inevitable. 

TO   KRETZER.1 

Freyrueg,  March  11,  1531. 

I  fear  this  fine  city  is  in  danger.  The  Emperor  is 
exasperated  and  Ferdinand  is  in  no  better  humour. 
They  say  there  will  be  a  truce  with  the  Turks,  and 
there  will  be  plenty  of  persons  who  will  then  pour  oil 
on  the  fire.  You  know  what  I  mean.  The  Duke  of 
Bavaria  covets  a  wider  frontier,  and  will  plead  zeal 
for  the  Catholic  faith:  and  there  are  cardinals  willing 
to  help  him.  They  know  that  the  whole  storm  has 
risen  from  the  pride  and  self-indulgence  of  the  eccle- 
siastical order,  yet  they  go  on  spending,  feasting, 
gambling  night  after  night.  The  people  see  it  all, 
yet  the  clergy  think  that  the  revolt  can  be  crushed  by 
force.  The  only  remedy  is  for  the  heads  of  the 
Church  to  mend  their  ways,  but  this  is  the  last  thing 
in  their  thoughts.  They  regard  the  revolution  as  a 
mere  outbreak  of  licence,  and  they  look  to  human 
means  to  protect  themselves.  Their  pride,  their 
tyranny,  their  luxury,  their  profligacy  daily  grow 
1  Ep.  melxiii.,  abridged. 


392  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

worse.  It  is  not  for  me  to  condemn  the  Pope,  but 
the  news  which  I  hear  from  Italy  fills  me  with  sor- 
row. He  dreams  that  he  can  put  down  opposition  by 
getting-  the  Emperor  to  help  him  and  by  making  more 
cardinals.  It  is  to  defy  God  Almighty.  The  world 
cannot  overcome  the  world.  They  blow  their  trum- 
pets, and  say  they  are  making  war  on  heresy.  The 
war  will  be  only  for  their  own  revenues  and  power 
and  idle  pleasures.  Between  one  faction  and  the 
other  the  whole  country  will  be  laid  waste,  and  the 
Church  and  Germany  be  alike  ruined.  God  grant  I 
prove  mistaken,  but  I  have  been  a  true  prophet  so 
far. 

TO   EGNATIUS.1 

March  13,  1531. 

No  one  had  more  friends  than  I  before  the  battle 
of  the  dogmas.  I  tried  to  keep  out  of  the  fray,  but 
into  the  arena  I  had  to  go,  though  nothing  was  more 
abhorrent  to  my  nature.  Had  I  but  a  single  set  of 
enemies  to  contend  with,  I  might  bear  it.  But  I  am 
no  sooner  engaged  with  one  faction  than  the  other 
whose  cause  I  am  defending  stabs  me  in  the  back.  I 
need  to  be  Geryon  with  the  hundred  hands,  or  one  of 
Plato's  men  with  two  faces,  four  arms,  and  four  legs. 
You  remember  the  fight  between  the  scholars  and  the 
Rabbins  who  would  mix  sea  and  land  rather  than  ad- 
mit that  there  was  anything  which  they  did  not  know. 
I  was  in  the  thick  of  it,  when  out  came  this  war  of 
opinions  by  which  the  world  is  still  convulsed,  and 
almost  all  those  who  were  then  with  me  went  over  to 
the  new  sect.  I  could  not  go  with  them  and  I  found 
myself  deserted.  They  were  patient  with  me  for  a 
time.  They  thought  I  was  hiding  my  real  views  and 
would  be  with  them  in  the  end.  At  last  I  had  to 
enter  the  lists  against  their  leader,  and  those  who  had 
been  my  sworn  allies  became  my  bitterest  foes.  I 
was  in  no  better  case  with  my  old  opponents,  who 
tried  to  persuade  the  world  that  the  religious  revolt 

1  Ep.  mclxv.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XIX.  393 

could  not  be  ended  till  learning  was  put  down,  and 
specially  Erasmus.  Thus  I  was  shot  at  from  all 
sides,  and  was  only  saved  by  the  Emperor.  Even 
this  fate,  however,  is  better  than  either  to  give  a 
name  to  a  new  schism  or  to  flatter  tyrants  parading 
themselves  in  the  name  of  Christ.  These  last  have 
found  blood  so  sweet  that  they  leave  no  stone  un- 
turned to  bring  on  a  civil  war,  which  now  seems 
impending.  Had  I  been  attended  to  at  first,  the 
quarrel  might  have  been  composed,  and  now  we  are 
to  be  trampled  down  by  contending  armies. 

In  times  of  excitement  news  vary  from  hour  to 
hour.  The  day  after  he  had  written  this  desponding 
letter  he  heard  reports  which  gave  him  hope  again, 
and  his  fine  natural  spirits  revived. 

•     TO    DUKE    GEORGE.1 

March  15,  1531. 

The  Gospellers  libel  me  as  usual,  but  I  should  care 
little  if  I  could  see  the  Church  as  I  would  have  it. 
Italy  seems  quiet.  France,  they  say,  is  now  really 
friendly  with  the  Emperor.  There  is  no  danger  from 
Spain.  And  I  hear  the  English  divorce  case  is  to  be 
rationally  and  peacefully  settled.  I  know  how  well 
disposed  the  King  is.  Also  a  truce  is  to  be  made 
with  the  Turk,  which  is  like  to  be  of  infinite  benefit. 
If  this  German  fever  would  but  abate  we  might  ex- 
pect a  golden  age. 

It  was  a  broken  gleam  of  sunshine.  The  English 
divorce  was  not  settled;  a  truce  was  not  made  with 
the  Turk;  and  a  fortnight  later  all  w:is  again 
black  as  midnight. 

TO   ALBERT    DALBON.2 

4pri7  I,  L581. 

I  do  not  like  the  look  <>f  things,     God  knows  what 
is   coming.      They   say    lli«-   Turk    is    putting   three 
1  Ep.  mcLrix.  ..  mob  -  ill.,  abridge  d. 


394  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

armies  in  the  field  —  one  for  Austria,  one  for  Poland, 
the  other  to  land  in  Naples  with  a  blessing  from  the 
Pope.  This  is  bad  enough,  and  a  civil  war  in  Ger- 
many will  be  worse.  You  may  tell  me  a  desperate 
disease  requires  desperate  remedies.  I  love  not  rem- 
edies worse  than  the  disease  itself.  When  fighting 
begins  the  worst  sufferers  are  the  innocent.  Spain  is 
full  of  concealed  Jews  and  Germany  is  full  of  rob- 
bers. These  will  supply  the  ranks  of  the  regiments. 
Religion  will  be  the  plea,  and  the  lava  stream  will 
first  deluge  Germany  and  then  the  rest  of  Europe. 
No  emperor  was  ever  stronger  than  our  present 
ruler.  He,  it  appears,  will  do  what  the  Pope  orders. 
This  will  be  well  enough  if  Christ's  vicar  will  be  like 
his  master,  but  I  fear  the  Pope  in  his  eagerness  for 
revenge  will  fare  as  the  horse  fared  who  took  the 
man  on  his  back  to  drive  off  the  stag.  We  must  be 
a  wicked  race  when  with  such  princes  we  are  still 
so  miserable.  Why  do  we  not  repent  and  mend? 
They  make  laws  against  drink  and  extravagance,  laws 
for  priests  to  keep  their  tonsures  open,  wear  longer 
clothes,  and  sleep  without  companions,  but  only  God 
can  cleanse  the  fountain  of  such  things.  May  God 
teach  the  heads  of  the  Church  to  prefer  His  glory  to 
their  own  pleasures,  teach  princes  to  seek  wisdom 
from  on  high,  and  monks  and  priests  to  despise  the 
world  and  study  holy  Scripture. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  in  the  midst  of  his 
anxieties  Erasmus  was  not  neglecting  his  proper  work. 
Harassed  by  theological  mosquitoes,  alarmed,  and 
justly  so,  by  the  thunder-cloud  which  was  hanging  over 
Germany,  we  find  by  the  dates  of  his  letters  that  he 
was  corresponding  at  length  and  elaborately  with  the 
learned  men  of  his  time  on  technical  points  of  scholar- 
ship, Bible  criticism  or  the  teaching  of  the  early  Fa- 
thers. This,  too,  when  he  was  past  sixty,  and  with 
health  shattered  by  gout  and  stone.  Pie  might  com- 
plain, and  complain  he  did  loudly  enough,  but  he  had 


Lecture  XIX.  395 

a  tough  elastic  spirit  underneath  it  all,  and  complaint 
did  not  mean  weakness.  It  is  well  to  mention  these 
things  if  I  am  to  make  you  respect  him,  as  I  hope 
you  will.  But  I  must  leave  them  on  one  side.  "We 
have  to  do  here  with  the  relations  of  Erasmus  to  the 
great  events  of  his  time. 

The  reformed  States  had  been  allowed  six  months 
to  comply  with  the  Augsburg  edict.  They  had  not 
complied,  and  did  not  mean  to  comply,  and  Charles 
seemed  to  be  getting  ready  to  force  them.  Erasmus 
writes :  — 

TO  LEONARDI.1 

April  6,  1531. 
All  these  preparations  are  made  in  the  interest  of 
the  priests,  yet  the  priests  may  find  themselves  worse 
off  than  they  are  now.  The  Emperor  and  his  brother 
mean  well,  yet  they  are  about  to  let  loose  a  scum  of 
ruffians  over  Germany  —  most  of  them  half  Luther- 
ans at  heart  or  men  of  no  religion  at  all.  It  is  said 
the  princes  will  keep  them  in  order.  Will  they  ? 
Look  at  Rome,  look  at  Vienna,  which  suffered  worse 
from  its  Q-arrison  than  from  the  Turks.  Our  two 
sovereigns  are  good  and  pious,  but  they  are  young, 
and  the  greater  their  piety  the  worse  they  may  be  led 
astray.  The  Emperor  will  do  as  Clement  tells  him. 
If  Clement  tells  him  what  Christ  will  approve,  well 
and  good;  but  —  I  will  not  add  the  rest;  and 
what  is  to  become  of  sick  old  creatures  like  me  ' 
From  a  movable  I  am  become  a  fixture.  I  am  one  of 
those  animals  they  call  adhesive.  1  cannot  fly.  T  must 
sit  still  and  wait  for  my  fate.  Fugger  invites  me  to 
Augsburg,  but  I  should  only  change  one  dangerous 
place  for  another. 

TO   CARDINAL   AUGUSTINE.2 

April  12,  1681. 
I  have  done  my  best  to  stop  these  ( rerman  troubles. 
I     have    sacrificed   my   popularity     ;in<l    broken    my 

1  .Eyi.nn-lxwi.  i  p.    mi  lxwiii. 


39G  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

health,  and  small  thanks  I  have  met  with  from  those 
whose  part  I  have  taken.  The  Lutherans  had  some 
right  to  be  angry  with  me,  but  I  did  not  look  to  be 
so  venomously  libelled  by  the  Catholics.  I  had  ill 
friends  at  Rome  who  tried  to  set  the  Pope  against 
me.  Happily,  they  did  not  succeed.  If  the  Pope 
knew  all  he  would  see  that  Erasmus  had  been  his 
truest  adviser.  Tell  the  Pope  from  me  that  I  have 
encountered  trials  for  Christ's  sake  which  I  would  not 
have  faced  to  be  created  Pope  myself.  I  have  made 
enemies  of  all  the  men  of  learning  who  were  once 
warmly  attached  to  me,  and  old  friends  are  the  most 
dangerous  of  foes,  because  they  know  our  secrets. 

Again  :  — 

TO   ANDOMAE.1 

April  10,  1531. 

I  am  sick  of  Germany.  If  I  do  not  know  where  I 
should  go,  I  know  where  I  should  not  go.  I  have 
thought  of  Flanders.  Queen  Mary,  who  is  to  suc- 
ceed Margaret  as  Regent,  is  a  good  friend  to 
me ;  but  if  I  go  there  the  Catholics  will  fall  upon 
me,  and  as  they  would  have  the  Pope  and  the  Em- 
peror with  them,  she  could  not  protect  me.  I 
trust  things  are  better  where  you  are.  The  factions 
here  will  leave  no  one  alone.  Where  the  Evangeli- 
cals are  in  power  they  do  as  they  please,  and  the 
rest  must  submit ;  we  are  already  Lutherans,  Zwing- 
lians,  and  Anabaptists ;  the  next  thing  will  be  we  shall 
turn  Turks. 

The  Evangelicals  were  not  all  so  savage  with  Eras- 
mus or  so  obstinate  as  Luther  ;  some  of  them  -still 
looked  to  him  as  the  wisest  guide  to  follow  and  as  the 
best  able  to  help  them.  Julius  Pflug,  a  young  influ- 
ential Protestant,  writes  to  him  from  Leipzig  :  2  — 

May  12,  1531. 
To   you    alone    all    friends    of  peace   are   looking. 
You,  by  God's  grace,  have  influence  ,•  you,  and  only 

1  Ep.  mclxxxv.  2  Ep.  mclxxxvi. 


Lecture  XIX.  397 

you,  can  convince  the  princes  that  if  the  controversies 
are  to  be  ended,  human  laws  and  institutions  must 
change  with  the  times,  and  the  Church  must  relax 
such  rules  as  are  not  of  divine  obligation.  Do  you 
move  the  Emperor  and  his  brother,  and  Melanchthon's 
party  will  then  submit  to  much  which  they  do  not 
like.  A  little  yielding  on  both  sides,  and  peace  may 
be  preserved. 

Erasmus  answers  at  length  : 1  — 

August  20,  1531. 
Never  was  so  wild  an  age  as  ours ;  one  would  think 
six  hundred  Furies  had  broken  loose  from  lull. 
Laity  and  clergy  are  all  mad  together.  1  have  not  the 
power  you  think.  I  can  work  no  miracles.  I  do  not 
know  what  the  Pope  intends.  As  burning  heretics  at 
the  stake  has  failed,  the  priests  now  wish  to  try 
the  sword.  It  is  not  for  me  to  say  if  they  are  right. 
The  Turks  perhaps  will  not  leave  them  leisure  for  the 
experiment.  The  better  way  would  be  to  restore  the 
Gospel  as  a  rule  of  life,  and  then  choose  a  hundred 
and  fifty  learned  men  from  all  parts  of  Christendom 
to  settle  the  points  in  dispute.  Opinions  on  special 
subjects  need  not  be  made  Articles  of  Faith.  Some 
laws  of  the  Church  may  require  to  be  changed,  and 
clergy  should  be  appointed  fitter  for  their  duties.  At 
present  the  revenues  of  the  Church  go  to  support  a 
parcel  of  satraps,  and  the  people  are  left  to  the  new 
teachers,  who  would  abolish  the  whole  Church  organ- 
isation. Had  Adrian  lived  and  reigned  ten  years, 
Rome  might  perhaps  have  been  purified,  lie  sought 
my  advice.  I  gave  it,  but  received  no  answer.  I 
suppose  it  did  not  please  him.  Melanchthon  is  ;i  man 
of  gentle  nature.  Even  his  enemies  speak  well  of 
him?  II.;  tried  your  plan  at  Augsburg,  and  had  my 
health  allowed  I  would  have  been  there  to  support 
him.  You  know  what  ••nine  of  it.  Excellenl  eminent 
men  were  denounced  as  heretics  merely  tor  having 
spokeu  to  him.  Suppose  that  he  and  I  were  to 
1  Ep.  rncxev.,  abridged. 


398  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

compose  a  scheme  of  agreement,  neither  side  would 
accept  it  —  leaders  or  followers.  Remember  Monk 
John  in  the  theatre.  John,  being  country-bred,  had 
never  seen  a  theatre.  Two  prize-fighters  were  show- 
ing off  on  the  boards.  John  rushed  in  to  part  them, 
and  was  of  course  killed. 

The  Pope,  after  all,  had  to  wait  for  his  revenge. 
The  Turks  were  guardian  angels  to  the  infant  Gos- 
pel. If  they  were  not  to  take  Vienna,  Charles  and 
Ferdinand  required  the  help  of  Germany ;  and  not  a 
man  nor  a  florin  would  the  Diet  vote  unless  religion 
was  let  alone.  The  English  cloud  grew  blacker. 
Catherine  was  still  obstinate.  The  Pope  censured 
the  King.  The  King  replied  with  Acts  of  Parliament 
and  fitted  out  his  fleet.  The  Catholic  nobles  and  the 
monks  and  abbots  prepared  to  rebel,  entreated  the 
Pope  to  excommunicate  the  King,  and  entreated 
Charles  to  send  across  an  army  from  Ostend.  The 
Pope  declined  to  thunder  unless  Charles  would  prom- 
ise to  execute  the  sentence  ;  and  Charles  knew  per- 
fectly well  that  if  he  stirred  a  finger,  France  and 
England  would  both  be  in  the  field  against  him,  and 
civil  war  would  break  out  in  Germany. 

The  Edicts  of  Augsburg  slept.  It  was  impossible 
to  enforce  them,  and  men  began  to  talk  of  a  General 
Council  as  the  only  remedy.  Erasmus  could  breathe 
more  freely  again.  Charles  and  Ferdinand,  who  had 
been  cold  while  the  war  fever  was  on  them,  were 
again  polite  and  complimentary.  The  Pope  grew 
civil.  Cardinals  remembered  their  old  friendship  and 
became  once  more  gracious  and  affectionate.  Concili- 
ation was  to  be  the  order  of  the  day,  and  the  help  of 
Erasmus  might  be  needed  after  all. 


LECTURE  XX. 

This  will  be  my  last  lecture,  for  the  life  of  Eras- 
mus was  drawing  to  an  end.  He  did  not  feel  it.  His 
health  was  shattered.  He  was  sixty-five  years  old, 
but  his  indomitable  spirit  was  rising  with  the  apparent 
improvement  of  the  prospect.  The  Emperor  was  gra- 
cious again ;  Clement  was  propitious.  Ferdinand  of- 
fered him  some  high  post  in  the  Church,  and  directed 
the  Cardinal  of  Trent  to  make  a  formal  proposal  to 
him.  He  was,  of  course,  pleased,  though  obliged  to 
refuse. 

May  19,  1532. 

I  am  much  gratified  (he  writes  in  acknowledgment 
to  the  Cardinal 2),  and  I  regret  that  I  am  not  able  to 
thank  the  Prince  in  person.  You  bid  me  ask  some 
favour  of  him,  which  you  undertake  that  he  mil  grant. 
Would  that  King  Christ  had  sent  me  such  a  message. 
Of  Him  I  should  have  much  to  ask  —  especially  a 
mind  more  worthy  of  His  service.  From  the  King  of 
the  Romans  I  can  desire  nothing  beyond  what  his 
goodness  already  supplies.  I  am  fit  for  nothing  but 
study.  High  office  would  be  a  fresh  burden  on  the 
back  of  a  broken-down  old  horse.  Wealth  at  the  end 
of  life  is  but  fresh  luggage  when  the  journey  is  over. 
Neither  Pope  nor  Emperor  can  delay  the  advance  of 
years  or  make  bad  health  into  good.  Both  call  them- 
selves my  friends,  but  they  cannot  stop  the  barking 
curs.     Would  they  could  ! 

Cardinal  Cajetan  also  wrote  that  the  Pope  wished 
to    show    Erasmus  some  mark  of  esteem.     Tins  was 

1  Ep.  mccxxi.,  abridK«'l. 


400  Lfe  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

well  enough  now  when  his  help  was  again  needed.  He 
was  pleased,  but  did  not  choose  to  appear  too  effusively 
grateful.  He  thought  Clement  might  have  done  more 
to  stop  the  "barking  curs,"  considering  the  service 
which  Erasmus  had  done  the  Church  by  refusing  to 
join  Luther. 

July  23,  1532. 
Had  I  a  grain  of  heresy  in  me  (he  said *),  I  should 
have  been  driven  wild  long  ago  by  those  snarling 
wretches,  and  have  gone  into  the  heretic  camp.  As  it 
is,  I  never  made  a  sect ;  anyone  who  came  to  me  I 
handed  back  to  the  Church  ;  I  have  no  need  of  honours 
and  benefices  —  ephemeral  little  mortal  that  I  am !  — 
but  I  will  gladly  do  what  I  can  to  please  the  Pope, 
and  will  welcome  any  token  of  approbation  from  him. 

Conciliation  was  now  to  be  the  order  of  the  day, 
but  Erasmus  had  no  intention  of  forwarding-  an  ar- 
rangement  which  was  to  give  back  their  power  to  the 
monks.  There  coidd  be  no  peace  till  those  dogs  were 
muzzled.  The  monks  had  been  at  the  bottom  of  the 
whole  mischief. 

The  champions  of  the  Franciscans  (he  writes  to 
Charles  Utenhove2)  must  be  more  hateful  to  St. 
Francis  than  to  any  other  mortal.  St.  Francis  came 
lately  to  me  in  a  dream  and  thanked  me  for  chastising 
them.  He  was  not  dressed  as  they  now  paint  him. 
His  frock  was  brown,  the  wool  undyed  as  it  came  from 
the  sheep ;  the  hood  was  not  peaked,  but  hung  behind 
to  cover  the  head  in  bad  weather.  The  cord  was  a 
piece  of  rope  from  a  farmyard ;  the  frock  itself  did 
not  reach  his  ankles.  He  had  no  fine  shoes.  His 
feet  were  bare.  Of  the  five  wounds  I  saw  not  a  trace. 
He  gave  me  his  hand  on  departing,  called  me  his 
brave  soldier,  and  said  I  should  soon  be  with  him.  I 
would  complain  less  of  the  dress  of  these  people  if  they 
copied  their  founder's  virtues,  the  seraph's  six  wings 

1  Ep.  mccxxvii.  2  Ep.  mccxxx. 


Lecture  XX.  401 

as  they  call  them  —  obedience,  poverty,  chastity, 
humility,  simplicity,  charity.  If  they  possessed  these, 
honest  men  as  well  as  silly  women  would  then  welcome 
them  as  angels  of  peace.  They  ought  to  be  preaching 
the  Gospel;  you  find  them  instead  haunting  princes' 
courts  and  rich  men's  houses.  Their  morals  —  but 
of  this  I  say  nothing ;  silence  is  more  emphatic  than 
speech.  Would  that  silence  was  not  necessary !  They 
go  about  begging  with  forged  testimonials,  which  serve 
for  a  passport,  and  now  they  have  made  the  notable 
discovery  that  a  rich  man,  alarmed  for  his  sins,  may 
buy  a  share  in  the  merits  of  the  order  if  he  is  buried 
in  the  Franciscan  habit.  They  demand  admission  at 
private  houses,  to  come  and  go  as  they  please,  invited 
or  uninvited,  and  the  owner  dares  not  refuse.  What 
slavery  is  this  ?  A  man  with  young  sons  and  daugh- 
ters and  a  wife  not  past  her  prime  must  take  a  stranger 
into  his  family  whether  he  likes  it  or  not  —  Spaniard, 
Italian,  French,  English,  Irish,  Scotch,  German,  or 
Indian  —  and  the  secrets  of  his  household  are  exposed 
to  all  the  world.  Wise  men  know  that  in  such  a  mul- 
titude not  all  are  pure.  Monks  are  often  sent  on  their 
travels  because  they  have  misconducted  themselves; 
and,  even  supposing  them  sober  and  chaste,  they  are 
made  of  the  same  flesh  as  other  men.  I  have  heard 
many  stories  of  what  has  happened  in  such  circum- 
stances. They  pretend  that  they  have  no  other  means 
of  living.  Why  should  they  live  at  all  ?  What  is 
the  use  of  these  mendicant  vagabonds  ?  Not  many  of 
them  teach  the  Gospel,  and,  if  they  must  needs  travel, 
they  have  houses  of  their  own  order  to  go  to. 

There  would  be  no  more  mendicant  monks  if  Eras- 
mus could  have  his  way,  and  when  priests  took  the 
law  into  their  own  hands  and  married  wives  lie  did 
not  find  particular  fault  with  them.  A  humorous  let- 
ter to  one  of  these  is  interesting  for  an  anecdote  which 
it  contains  of  Sir  Thomas  More.1 

1  Ep.  nice  w.wii. 


402  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

October  31,  1532. 

Do  not  repent  of  having  married  a  widow.  If  you 
buy  a  horse,  you  buy  one  already  broken  in.  Sir  T. 
More  often  said  to  me  that  if  he  was  to  marry  a  hun- 
dred wives  he  would  never  take  a  maid.  He  has  an 
old  one  now  who  has  lived  a  little  too  long. 

Sir  Thomas  More  was  just  then  much  in  Erasmus's 
mind.  As  the  prospect  seemed  to  be  clearing  in  Ger- 
many, the  English  cloud  was  growing  darker.  He 
had  been  proud  of  his  friend's  elevation  to  the  Chan- 
cellorship, and  delighted  to  see  him  engaged  in  the 
practical  reforming  work  with  which  Parliament  had 
been  busy.  But  events  were  running  now  in  a  direc- 
tion little  pleasing  to  an  earnest  Catholic.  The  Act 
of  Appeals  broke  up  the  spiritual  constitution.  An 
English  court  was  about  to  settle  the  divorce  question 
at  home.  Clement  himself  would  have  made  terms, 
but  the  Imperial  party  at  the  Vatican  compelled  lum 
to  issue  censure  upon  censure,  which  Henry  continued 
to  defy.  More  could  no  longer  take  a  part  in  mea- 
sures which  he  disapproved.  He  made  his  health  an 
excuse,  and  resigned  the  Great  Seal.  He  had  been 
willing  enough  to  use  the  knife  in  paring  down  the  as- 
sumptions of  the  clergy,  but,  like  Erasmus,  he  did  not 
wish  to  break  with  the  papacy  or  make  a  schism  in  the 
Church.  Like  Erasmus,  also,  he  disliked  the  new 
doctrines,  and  disliked  still  more  the  persons  by  whom 
they  were  advocated  —  men,  ignorant  and  uneducated, 
who  were  railing  at  the  beliefs  of  fifteen  hundred 
years.  Moderate  reformers  always  hate  those  who  go 
beyond  them.  More  confessed  that  he  detested  the 
Lutheran  demagogues,  and  he  had  distinguished  his 
Chancellorship  by  the  severity  with  which  he  had 
punished  them.  Their  friends  in  Germany  heard  of 
it,  and  there  was  an  outcry  which  Erasmus,  not  very 
successfully,  undertook  to  answer. 


Lecture  XX.  403 

TO   JOHN   FABER.1 

1533. 
Report  says  that  More  has  been  dismissed  from  of- 
fice, and  that  a  number  of  persons  have  been  released 
by  his  successor  whom  More  had  imprisoned  for  her- 
esy.    The  story  has  flashed  over  Europe  like   light- 
ning.    I  was  sure  it  was  false.     I  know  how  unwill- 
ingly the  King-  parts  with  a  servant  whom  he  has  once 
trusted,  even  for  a  real  faidt.     More's  retirement  was 
by  his  own  wish.     The  Chancellorship  is  a  great  of- 
fice, next  to  the  Crown.     The  Chancellor  is  the  King's 
right  eye  and  the  King's  right  hand.     More  was  ap- 
pointed   because  the  King  loved  and  respected  him. 
The  Cardinal  of  York,  when  he  found  he  could  not 
himself  return  to  office,  admitted  that  More  was  the 
fittest   man   to   succeed   him  ;  and    this  is  the  more 
noticeable  because  the  Cardinal  when  in  power  had 
not  been  just  to  More,  and  had  more  feared  than  liked 
him.     All  were  pleased  when  he  accepted  the  Great 
Seal;  and   he  lays    it  down  to  the  universal  regret. 
Who  succeeds  him  I  know  not.     As  to  what  is  said  of 
the  release  of  prisoners,  I  am  certain  that  a  man  so 
merciful  would  have  punished  no  one  who  after  warn- 
ing was  ready  to  recant  his  heresies.     Is  it  meant  that 
tire  highest  judge  in  the  realm  is  not  to  imprison  any- 
one?    More  detests  the  seditious  doctrines  with  which 
the  world  is  now  convulsed.     lie  makes  no  secret  of 
it.     He   is-  profoundly   religious,  and    if   he  inclines 
either  way  it  is  towards  superstition.     Yet  during  his 
tenure  of  office  not  one  person  has  been  punished  cap- 
itally for  his  opinions  [a  large  mistake  of  Erasmus]. 
But  is  the  King's  deputy  to  show  favour  to  seditious 
novelties  against  the  judgment  of  the  bishops  and  the 
King?     Had  he  been  so  disposed,  ha i i  he  not  abhorred 
the  new  doctrines,  he  must  have  Concealed  his  sympa- 
thies or  resigned  his  offiee.      Who  does  not  know  that 
behind    the  shield  of   religion  crowds  of    rascals  are 
ready  to  break  into  crime  unless   restrained    1>\    the 
magistrate?     Yet  men  are  angry  because   the    Chief 

1  Ep.  ccexxvi.,  second  series  abrid 


40-i  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Judge  of  England  lias  only  done  what  the  senates  of 
the  reformed  free  cities  have  been  obliged  to  do,  if  the 
pseudo-Gospellers  were  not  to  break  into  their  tills. 
The  English  Chancellor,  forsooth,  was  to  sit  still  while 
a,  torrent  of  villainy  overflowed  the  realm!  The 
meaning  of  all  this  clamour  is  that  England  is  to  be  a 
city  of  refuge  for  scoundrels  ;  and  the  King  will  not 
have  it  so. 

A  generous  defence,  and  partly  sound.  The  laws 
of  a  great  kingdom  cannot  be  set  aside  in  a  moment 
to  relieve  the  consciences  of  individuals.  But  it  is  not 
true  that  no  ( heretics  were  sent  to  the  stake  during 
More's  term  of  office,  and  those  who  suffered  under 
him  were  not  the  rogues  whom  Erasmus  describes. 
More  himself  repudiates  the  suspicion  of  leniency  as 
an  insult. 

My  epitaph  shall  record  (he  says)  that  I  have  been 
an  enemy  to  heretics.  I  say  it  deliberately.  I  do  so 
detest  that  class  of  men  that  unless  they  repent  I  am 
the  worst  enemy  they  have.  Every  day  I  see  increas- 
ing reason  to  fear  what  mischief  they  may  produce  in 
the  world. 

Before  two  years  were  over  Erasmus  had  himself 
to  regret  that  More  had  not  left  theology  alone. 
More,  too,  had  to  pay  for  excess  of  zeal.  But  it  is  to 
be  remembered  that  he  was  in  the  centre  of  a  hurri- 
cane, blown  up,  as  he  thought,  by  vanity  and  igno- 
rance. He  had  to  act  according  to  his  light,  and  it  is 
not  for  us  historians  in  our  easy-chairs  to  talk  glibly 
of  bigotry  and  superstition.  Before  we  censure,  we 
must  try  to  understand.  On  his  resignation  of  the 
Great  Seal,  More  wrote  an  interesting  letter  to  Eras- 


mus.1 


Chelsea,  June  14,  1533. 


By  the  grace  of  God  and  the  King  I  am  at  last  free, 
though  I  am  not  as  well  off  as  I  could  wish.     Some 

1  Ep.  mcexxiii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XX.  405 

disease,  I  know  not  what,  hangs  heavily  about  my 
heart.  It  is  not  pain  ;  it  is  distress  and  alarm  at  what 
lies  before  us.  Doctors  told  me  I  must  rest,  and  be 
careful  of  my  diet.  I  found  I  must  either  resign  or 
do  my  duty  badly  and  risk  my  life.  If  life  went,  my 
office  would  go  along  with  it ;  so  I  thought  it  best 
to  save  one  of  them  at  any  rate,  and  the  King  was 
pleased  to  release  me.  I  am  good  for  nothing  when  I 
am  ill.  We  are  not  all  Erasmuses.  Here  arc  you,  in 
a  condition  which  would  break  the  spirit  of  a  vigorous 
youth,  still  bringing  out  book  on  book,  for  the  in- 
struction and  admiration  of  the  world.  What  matter 
the  attacks  upon  you?  No  great  writer  ever  escaped 
malignity.  But  the  stone  which  these  slanderers  have 
been  rolling  so  many  years  is  like  the  stone  of  Sisy- 
phus, and  will  recoil  on  their  own  heads,  and  you  will 
stand  out  more  grandly  than  ever.  You  allow  frankly 
that  if  you  could  have  foreseen  these  pestilent  heresies 
you  would  have  been  less  outspoken  on  certain  points. 
Doubtless  the  Fathers,  had  they  expected  such  times 
as  ours,  would  have  been  more  cautious  in  their  utter- 
ances. They  had  their  own  disorders  to  attend  to, 
and  did  not  think  of  the  future.  Thus  it  has  been 
with  them  as  with  you,  and  heretics  can  quote  passages 
from  the  Fathers  which  seem  to  make  for  their  view  ; 
but  so  they  can  quote  Apostles  and  Evangelists  and 
even  Christ  Himself.  The  bishops  and  the  King  try 
to  check  these  new  doctrines,  but  they  spread  wonder- 
fully. The  teachers  of  them  retreat  into  the  Low 
Countries,  as  into  a  safe  harbour,  and  send  over  their 
works  written  in  English.  Our  people  read  them 
partly  in  thoughtlessness,  partly  from  a  malicious  dis- 
position. Tiny  enjoy  them,  not  because  they  think 
them  true,  but  because  they  wish  them  to  lie  true. 
Such  persons  are  past  mending;  but  I  try  to  help 
those  who  do  not  go  wrong  from  bad  will,  and  are  Led 
astray  by  clever  rogues. 

Death  meanwhile  had  carried    off    Warham.     He 
was  expected  to  leave  Erasmus  a  legacy,  hut  lie  died 


406  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

so  poor  that  there  was  scarce  enough  left  to  bury  him. 
In  Warham  Erasmus  had  lost  the  dearest  of  his 
English  friends.  There  was  a  doubt  also  whether  he 
might  not  lose  his  pension,  but  for  this  there  was  no 
occasion ;  it  continued  to  be  paid  while  he  lived. 
Who  would  succeed  Warham  was  an  anxious  question 
to  him. 

Freyburg,  May  14, 1533. 

I  cannot  guess  (he  writes  to  a  correspondent)1  who 
the  new  archbishop  is.  I  hope  it  is  William  Knight. 
I  am  sorry  things  look  so  threatening  over  there. 
The  Pope  orders  the  King  to  live  with  his  wife  till 
the  cause  is  decided  at  Rome.  At  the  rate  at  which 
it  proceeds  it  never  will  be  decided  while  the  parties 
are  alive.  It  has  already  lasted  eight  years ; 2  and 
now  that  two  hundred  doctors  have  proved  by  Scrip- 
ture and  argument  that  the  marriage  with  Catherine 
cannot  stand  either  by  human  law  or  divine,  the  King 
may  fairly  plead  his  conscience ;  while,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  the  Pope  pronounces  against  the  marriage, 
he  will  offend  the  Emperor  and  compromise  the  Holy 
See,  which  granted  the  original  dispensation.  Causes 
which  bring  so  much  money  to  Rome  and  the  princes 
under  the  power  of  the  Holy  Father  are  not  apt  to 
be  finished,  and  perhaps  there  is  something  besides 
that  touches  the  King  which  he  does  not  care  to  ex- 
pose to  the  world.3 

Cranmer,  as  we  all  know,  was  the  new  primate, 
once  adored  as  a  Protestant  saint  and  martyr,  now  as 
passionately  reviled.  We  are  not  concerned  with 
Cranmer  here,  but  before  this  letter  of  Erasmus  was 
written  the  King   and   the  English    Parliament  had 

1  Ep.  ccclxxii.,  second  series. 

2  Jam  octo  sunt  anni  quod  agitur  hoc  necjolium.  The  date  is  impor- 
tant as  it  takes  us  back  to  1525,  long  before  Anne  Boleyn  had  been 
heard  of  in  connection  with  the  King. 

3  "  Et  fortassis  aliud  quiddara  est  quod  urit  Regis  animum,  quod  ef- 
f em  non  vult." 


Lecture  XX.  407 

taken  care  that  the  suit  should  not  linger  any  longer 
at  Rome.  The  Act  of  Appeals  had  been  passed. 
Cranmer  had  held  his  court  at  Dunstable  and  had 
given  final  sentence.  On  the  birth  of  Elizabeth  an 
Act  of  Succession  became  necessary,  declaring  the 
marriage  with  Catherine  to  have  been  illegal  from  the 
first,  and  requiring  all  subjects  to  acknowledge  Eliza- 
beth as  lawful  heir  to  the  Crown.  Catholic  Europe 
shrieked.  The  doctors  at  Louvain,  who  insisted  that 
Erasmus  was  at  the  bottom  of  all  that  went  wrong, 
accused  him  here,  too,  of  having  encouraged  Henry  in 
shaking  off  the  Pope's  authority.  His  friend  Damian 
a  Goes  wrote  to  him  for  leave  to  contradict  these 
charges.  His  answer  contains  the  fullest  account  of 
his  views  on  the  divorce  itself.1 

Freyburg,  July  25,  153  >. 

You  ask  me,  my  dear  Damian,  what  you  are  to 
answer  to  those  who  accuse  me.  Answer  that  their 
teeth  are  spears  and  arrows,  and  their  tongue  a  sharp 
sword.  No  mortal  ever  heard  me  speak  against  the 
divorce  or  for  it.  I  have  said  it  was  unfortunate  that 
a  prince  otherwise  so  happy  should  have  been  entan- 
gled in  such  a  labyrinth,  and  should  have  been  es- 
tranged from  the  Emperor  when  their  friendship  was 
of  such  importance  to  the  world.  But  I  should  have 
been  mad  to  volunteer  an  opinion  on  a  subject  where 
learned  prelates  and  legates  could  not  see  their 
way  to  a  decision.  I  love  the  King,  who  has  been  al- 
ways good  to  me.  I  love  the  Queen,  too,  as  nil  good 
men  do,  and  as  the  King,  I  think,  also  does.  The 
Emperor  is  my  sovereign.  I  am  sworn  of  his  coun- 
cil, and  if  I  forgot  my  duty  to  him  I  should  be  tin- 
most  ungrateful  of  mankind.  How,  then,  could  I 
thrust  myself  unasked  into  a  dispute  so  invidious7 
Had  I  been  consulted,  1  should  have  endeavoured  not 
to  answer;  bu,t  neither  the  Emperor  nor  Ferdinand 

1  Ep.  mccliii.,  abridged. 


408  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

ever  did  consult  me.  Two  years  ago  two  gentlemen 
from  the  Imperial  Court  came  to  me  and  asked  me 
what  I  thought.  I  said  I  had  not  given  my  mind  to 
the  subject  and  could  therefore  say  nothing  ;  the  most 
learned  men  disagreed ;  I  could  tell  them,  if  they 
liked,  what  I  wished  ;  but  to  say  what  human  or 
divine  law  would  permit  or  forbid  in  such  a  matter 
required  more  knowledge  than  I  possessed.  They 
assured  me  that  they  had  come  of  their  own  accord, 
and  had  no  commission  from  the  Emperor;  and  except 
these,  no  mortal  has  ever  questioned  me  on  the  sub- 
ject. The  fools  you  speak  of  have  told  an  impudent 
lie.  It  is  true  that  many  years  ago  I  dedicated  the 
twenty-second  Psalm  to  the  new  lady's  father  at  his 
own  request.  He  is  one  of  the  most  accomplished 
peers  in  England,  and  is  a  man  of  wisdom  and  judg- 
ment. But  this  is  nothing  to  the  divorce,  which  I 
hear  he  has  neither  advised  nor  approves. 

English  affairs  concern  us  here  only  indirectly,  but 
the  long  connection  of  Erasmus  with  Sir  T.  More  re- 
quires a  few  words  about  them.  The  King's  marriage 
with  Anne  Boleyn  was  a  signal  for  an  Irish  rebellion 
in  the  Pope's  name.  The  English  Catholic  armed,  - 
and  waited  only  for  the  landing  of  arms  and  men  from 
Holland  to  rise  also,  perhaps  with  Catherine  and  her 
daughter  at  their  head.  The  clergy,  monks  and  reg- 
ular, were  the  most  active  in  promoting  insurrection, 
and  Bishop  Fisher,  unhappily  for  himself,  had  gone 
into  the  worst  kind  of  treason  (there  is  no  doubt  of 
it  now  since  the  publication  of  Chapuys's  despatches), 
urging  the  introduction  of  an  invading  Catholic  force 
as  the  only  means  of  saving  England  for  the  Church. 
The  Catholic  preparations  were  well  known  to  Henry, 
if  not  the  names  of  the  actual  leaders.  English  kings 
had  no  armies  at  their  personal  command.  They  de- 
pended on  the  allegiance  of  their  subjects,  and  they 
had  to  be  wary  what  they  did. 


Lecture  XX.  409 

But  the  King-  could  not  sit  still  to  let  the  storm 
break  on  him.  In  passing  the  Act  of  Succession, 
Parliament  had  empowered  him  to  require  his  sub- 
jects to  swear  to  observe  it.  The  oath  was  generally 
taken  without  resistance.  Sir  T.  More  and  Bishop 
Fisher  refused,  and  were  committed  to  the  Tower. 
The  conspiracy  darkened  and  deepened.  The  Pope 
gave  his  own  sentence,  declaring  the  marriage  with 
Catherine  valid,  and  excommunicating  the  King  if  he 
refused  to  take  her  back.  The  King  and  Parliament 
replied  with  the  famous  Act  of  Supremacy,  declaring 
that  the  Pope  of  Rome  had  no  power  or  right  in  Eng- 
land at  all.  To  refuse  to  acknowledge  the  supremacy 
of  the  Crown  was  to  admit  the  superior  right  of  the 
Pope,  and  was  declared  high  treason.  Thus  the  two 
parties  stood  face  to  face  —  the  party  of  national  inde- 
pendence and  the  party  for  a  foreign  ruler.  The 
Supremacy  Act  was  the  test  of  loyalty.  In  the  dan- 
gerous situation  of  the  country  every  subject  might  be 
legitimately  required  to  say  on  which  side  he  stood. 

So  matters  went  on  in  England  during  these  years. 
We  must  return  to  Erasmus.  Over  all  the  disturbed 
part  of  Europe  the  cry  was  now  rising  for  a  general 
free  council  —  a  council  where  the  laity  should  have  a 
voice.  The  confusion  had  become  intolerable.  All 
reasonable  men,  and  even  the  wild  and  violent,  de- 
clared themselves  ready  to  submit  to  a  council  really 
free.  Henry  himself  was  ready  to  refer  his  own  ac- 
tions to  such  a  council.  But  the  question  w;is  li<>\\-  it 
was  to  be  got  together.     The  Pope,  if  it  was  Left  to 

him,  would  call  only  his  own  creatures  t<>  meet  b e- 

where  in  the  Papal  States,  and  make  another  Council 
of  the Lateran  of  it.  I'm- the  Emperor  to  call  a  coun- 
cil would  itself  be  an  ecclesiastical  revolution.  To  the 
Pope  even  a  council  of  bishops  meeting   anywhere 


410  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

was  sufficiently  unwelcome ;  a  council  where  laymen 
were  present  would  probably  turn  the  Tiber  into  the 
Vatican,  and  make  a  clean  sweep  of  cardinals  and 
Curia.  Letters  on  the  subject  from  all  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men  poured  in  upon  Erasmus.  Here  is  one 
from  an  earnest  moderate  Catholic,  expressing,  per- 
haps, the  thoughts  of  millions :  — 

GEORGE   WICELIUS   TO   ERASMUS.1 

March  30,  1533. 

I  can  think  of  nothing  but  the  council.  Our  miser- 
ies will  never  end  till  the  cause  of  them  is  removed. 
War  will  settle  nothing,  and  will  leave  an  incurable 
ulcer.  Germany  is  rent  in  two  ;  Christianity  itself  is 
in  peril.  Oh,  ears  of  Rome !  oh,  heart  of  Rome  ! 
deaf  and  dead  to  the  one  thing  needful,  and  buried 
in  the  pleasures  of  the  world !  Have  not  Catholics 
waited  long  enough?  Will  you  do  nothing  for  the 
poor  flock  of  Christ  ?  Will  not  our  cries  move  you 
at  last  ?  Our  hope  is  that  the  Emperor  will  lay 
demands  before  the  Court  of  Rome  which  it  will  be 
ashamed  to  refuse,  and  persuade  or  weary  it  into  com- 
pliance. What  Luther's  party  will  do  I  know  not. 
Some  think  they  will  never  agree  to  any  equitable 
settlement.  I  think  they  will  agree  if  they  are  ap- 
proached in  a  friendly  spirit,  and  if  the  council,  when 
it  meets,  is  wise  and  moderate.  Some  are  tired  of  the 
struggle  already.  Some  I  have  heard  say  in  plain 
words  they  wish  their  scheme  of  doctrine  had  never 
been  formulated,  so  many  are  the  inconveniences 
which  have  risen  from  it.  Luther  himself  will  be 
less  violent  when  he  hears  how  other  learned  men 
think  of  him.  His  haughty  crest  will  droop  and  his 
horns  drop  off  when  he  is  no  longer  on  his  own  dung- 
hill, and  has  to  defend  his  theories  of  yesterday 
against  the  sages  of  Christendom.  But  you,  Erasmus, 
you  of  all  men  must  be  there.     You  plead  age  and 

1  Ep.  ccclxxi.,  second  series,  abridged. 


Lecture  XX.  411 

illness.  Were  I  emperor  I  would  take  no  excuses 
from  you.  I  would  have  Old  Appius  carried  thither 
in  men's  arms.  It  is  not  Hannibal  who  is  now  at  the 
gate  ;  it  is  the  devil,  who  is  trying  to  destroy  the 
Christian  faith.  You  can  prove  —  you  can  answer  — 
you  can  explain  as  no  other  living  man  can  do.  You 
can  silence  the  rival  fanatics.  We  will  not  listen  to 
Luther ;  we  will  not  listen  to  the  sophists  of  the 
schools.  We  will  listen  to  Erasmus,  and  to  those 
who  think  like  Erasmus  —  to  those  who  love  Chris- 
tianity better  than  they  love  a  faction. 

As  a  council  seemed  approaching,  and  a  council 
which  Erasmus  might  guide,  the  louder  clamoured 
the  Ultra-Catholics.  Clement  himself  wavered,  dread- 
ing the  thought  of  it  —  now  flattering  the  Emperor, 
now  defying  him  under  the  supposed  shelter  of  France  : 
weak,  wavering,  passionate,  determined  at  any  rate  that 
there  should  be  no  Erasmian  reforms  in  the  Church 
of  Rome ;  while  monks  and  priests  fired  off  their 
vicious  letters  at  Erasmus  himself. 

December  24,  1533. 

I  have  so  many  letters  daily  (he  writes  to  Mexia 2) 
that  I  can  scarcely  read,  much  less  answer  them. 
Silence  is  the  highest  wisdom.  Hercules  himself 
could  not  do  battle  with  so  many  ants,  wasps,  frogs, 
magpies,  cranes,  gulls,  and  geese.  If  they  had  neither 
stings  nor  beaks  nor  claws,  the  very  noise  they  make 
would  drive  him  mad.  How  often  have  1  answered 
them!  yet  they  still  sing  the  old  song.  Erasmus 
laughs  at  the  saints,  despises  the  sacraments,  denies 
the  faith,  is  against  clerical  celibacy,  monks'  vows, 
and  human  institutions.  Erasmus  paved  the  way  for 
Luther.  So  they  gabble;  and  it  is  all  lies.  These 
dead-to-the-world  creatures  are  such  a  set  of  spitfires 
that   it  would  be  safer  to  be  lighting  cardinals  and 


kings. 


1   Ep.  iiic-i  K\ . 


412  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

It  soon  became  evident  that  there  would  be  no  coun- 
cil as  long  as  Clement  lived.  He  had  lost  England 
to  please  the  Emperor,  and  the  Emperor  was  refusing 
or  neglecting  to  burn  heretics  to  please  him.  He 
turned  spitefully  on  everyone  who  had  advised  a  coun- 
cil. Erasmus  fell  again  out  of  his  favour  further 
than  ever.  The  "  dead-to-the- world  "  gentry  received 
a  hint  that  they  might  attack  Erasmus  again  when 
they  pleased.  A  Franciscan  monk  high  in  favour  at 
Rome,  named  Nicholas  Herborn,  published  a  volume 
of  sermons  in  which  Erasmus  was  included  among;  the 
heretic  leaders,  and  a  friend  at  Rome,  the  Provost  of 
the  Curia,  sent  him  word  of  it.  He  was  ill  again,  not 
with  podagra,  as  he  said  in  his  humorous  way,  but 
with  penagra,  and  wanted  no  aggravation  of  his  suf- 
ferings. "  Herborn's  book,"  he  said  in  reply,  "  has 
neither  eloquence  nor  learning.  There  is  only  venom 
in  it.  He  says  Luther  has  drawn  away  one  part  of 
the  church,  Zwinglius  and  GEcolampadius  another, 
and  Erasmus  the  largest  of  all.  He  thinks  it  would 
have  been  better  if  Erasmus  had  never  been  born." 

Happily  for  his  peace,  Clement  died  soon  after, 
and  with  the  succession  of  Paul  III.  better  prospects 
seemed  to  open.  Paul,  while  cardinal,  had  been 
urgent  for  reform,  had  entreated  the  Emperor  to  give 
way  about  Catherine,  and  had  been  strongly  in  favour 
of  a  council.  His  first  act  on  his  accession  had  been 
to  make  advances  to  Henry  VIII.  He  spoke  of  call- 
ing a  council  immediately.  He  sent  the  Cardinal  of 
St.  Angelo  to  Germany  to  feel  his  way  towards  a 
reconciliation.  In  Clement's  time  Erasmus  had  been 
denounced,  as  he  complained,  in  every  church  and  at 
every  dinner  as  only  fit  for  a  Phalaris's  bull.  The 
Cardinal  of  St.  Angelo  now  sent  him  profuse  compli- 
ments along  with  a  handsome  present. 


Lecture  XX.  413 

January  9,  1535. 

The  Cardinal  (he  wrote1)  has  given  me  a  magnifi- 
cent gold  cup  as  a  sign  of  his  good  will.  I  produced 
it  for  my  friends  Glareanus  and  Khenanus,  who  were 
dining  with  me.  Rhenanus  insisted  that  I  should 
take  my  medicine  as  well  as  my  wine  out  of  it  —  that, 
in  fact,  I  should  never  drink  from  anything  else. 

Erasmus  describes  his  cup  as  a  work  worthy  of 
Praxiteles.  The  Cardinal  had  added  besides  that 
Paul,  at  his  election,  had  given  him  hopes  of  a  peace- 
ful solution  of  the  German  quarrel  and  particularly 
desired  Erasmus's  assistance. 

This  was  cheering  news  for  his  old  age.  He  might 
yet  hope  to  see  peace  before  he  died,  and  be  of  use  in 
bringing  it  about.  Paul  himself  soon  after  confirmed 
the  Cardinal's  message  under  his  own  hands,  and 
wrote  himself  to  Erasmus.2  He  told  him  that  he 
trusted  to  distinguish  his  reign  by  bringing  St.  Peter's 
boat  back  into  harbour;  that  Erasmus  must  give  him 
his  help  at  the  council,  and  so  nobly  end  his  long  life, 
silence  his  detractors,  and  gain  immortal  honour. 

Erasmus  at  this  time  had  been  seriously  ill.  The 
physicians  ordered  him  change  of  air.  He  was  too 
weak  to  ride,  and  was  carried  back  from  Freyburg  in 
a  woman's  litter  to  Bfde,  where  the  climate  suited 
him.  He  meant  only  to  sta)r  there  till  he  had  recov- 
ered strength.  He  was  never  to  leave  it  again,  lie. 
became  better  at  first,  the  Pope's  letter  no  doubt  help- 
ing his  convalescence.  Paul  was  perhaps  in  earnest  in 
what  lie  had  said;  but  events  are  too  strong  even  for 
popes.  The  first  misfortune  was  the  rising  of  the  Ana 
baptists  at  Minister,  where,  as  Erasmus  said,  the  devil 
had  broken  loose  in  earnest.  The  Anabaptists,  who 
had  aspired  to  regenerate  the  world  on  an   impossible 

1  Ep.  mcclxxvi.  -  Ep.  mcolzzz.  Maj  31,  i-"'-;.">. 


414  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

creed  of  love  and  equality  —  a  creed  which  they  were 
to  propagate  only  by  meekness  and  non-resistance  — 
had  been  bitten  by  the  madness  of  revolution,  and 
had  spread  like  a  stream  of  fire  over  Western  Ger- 
many and  the  Low  Countries.  They  were  stamped 
out  with  a  ferocity  like  their  own;  but  their  rising 
intensified  the  passion  of  the  Catholics,  who  regarded 
them  as  the  natural  offspring  of  Luther  and  Luther- 
anism,  and  were  thus  more  opposed  than  ever  to  any 
kind  of  agreement.  Francis  took  to  burning  heretics 
in  Paris,  rehearsing  a  prelude  to  St.  Bartholomew, 
swinging  the  poor  wretches  in  chains  above  the  flames 
while  he  and  the  Court  looked  on.  Darker  news  of 
another  kind  came  from  England.  The  country  was 
on  the  eve  of  rebellion  :  half-a-dozen  powerful  nobles 
were  ready  to  rise  in  the  northern  and  eastern  coun- 
ties ;  the  religious  houses  volunteering  to  pay  the 
expense  of  an  invading  Catholic  army.  The  Act  of 
Supremacy  was  put  into  force  to  distinguish  the  loyal 
from  the  disloyal,  and  those  who  had  given  cause  for 
suspicion  were  called  on  to  take  the  oath  of  allegiance. 
The  regular  clergy  we  know,  from  the  letters  of  Cha- 
puys,  were  at  heart  disloyal  to  a  man.  Most  of  them 
took  the  oath  with  their  lips  ;  others,  bolder,  refused. 
Four  centuries  of  immunity  from  the  law  had  led 
them  to  regard  themselves  as  sacred  persons  whom 
the  secular  arm  could  not  reach.  They  were  made  to 
feel  that  their  privileges  could  no  longer  protect  them, 
and  they  suffered  as  traitors.  "  Cruel !  "  —  we  say  — 
"  inhuman  !  monstrous !  such  saintly  men  !  "  Yes, 
but  civil  war  is  cruel  too.  Many  a  home  would  have 
been  laid  in  ashes,  and  many  a  hearth  been  desolate, 
if  the  Spaniards  and  the  Catholic  landknechts,  whom 
these  men  were  trying  to  bring  upon  our  shores,  had 
been  let  loose  on  the  towns  and  villages  of  England. 


Lecture  XX.  415 

We  ought  to  think  of  this,  and  what  it  was  that 
Henry's  peremptory  resolution  saved  us  from.  Paul, 
as  was  said,  made  overtures  to  him.  Henry  was  in 
no  hurry  to  respond.  He  said  he  had  no  wish  to 
separate  from  Christendom  if  he  and  his  realm  were 
justly  treated.  Clement  VII.  had  injured  him.  If 
Paul  wished  for  a  reconciliation,  he  had  the  remedy 
in  his  own  hands.  He  might  show  it  by  his  acts. 
There  had  been  words  enough. 

The  remedy,  if  there  was  one,  lay  in  a  free  council. 
Henry  wished  for  it.  All  wished  for  it  who  were  not 
maddened  by  fanaticism,  or,  like  the  Roman  Curia, 
terrified  at  the  name  of  reform.  Paul,  however, 
seemed  still  in  earnest,  and  began  creating  new  cardi- 
nals as  a  preparation  for  the  meeting.  Among  them 
he  proposed  to  include  Erasmus.  Stronger  proof  of 
his  sincerity  it  would  have  been  impossible  for  Paul  to 
give.  Within  a  few  months  the  Roman  bigots  would 
have  consigned  Erasmus  to  Phalaris's  bull.  Now,  in 
his  old  age,  the  Pope  desired  to  make  him  a  prince 
of  the  Church.  The  only  objection  was  his  want  of 
private  fortune,  and  this  could  be  easily  remedied. 

Unhappily  for  Paul  —  unhappily  for  the  prospects 
which  then  seemed  really  brightening — he  added  a 
name  to  the  list  of  promotions  to  the  Sacred  College 
less  wisely  chosen  —  that  of  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Roches- 
ter. He  protested  that  he  knew  Fisher  only  as  a  holy 
and  learned  man,  a  reformer  of  the  old  school,  a  no- 
torious friend  of  Erasmus.  He  said  that  he  required 
the  assistance  of  some  distinguished  Englishmen  a1  the 
council;  and  that  he  had  made  the  appointment  be- 
lieving that  he  could  have  selected  no  one  more  agree- 
able to  the  King  and  the  nation.  It  is  hard  to  accept 
such  an  interpretation.  The  [mperial  ambassador  in 
England  was   in  close   and  constant  correspondence 


416  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

with  Rome.  Fisher  had  been  named  in  his  let- 
ters again  and  again  as  the  leading  spirit  of  the  in- 
tended insurrection,  as  the  most  constant  opponent  of 
Henry's  actions  in  everything  that  had  been  done.  He 
had  been  imprisoned  for  many  months  in  the  Tower 
for  having  refused  the  succession  oath.  He  had  been 
sentenced  for  misprision  of  treason  as  having  been  con- 
cerned in  the  conspiracy  of  the  Nun  of  Kent.  It  is  im- 
possible that  the  motive  could  have  been  as  innocent  as 
the  Pope  pretended.  Perhaps  it  was  no  more  than  a 
pettish  resentment  at  Henry's  refusal  of  his  overtures. 
But  if  it  was  a  mistake,  it  was  a  fatal  one.  It  was 
accepted  in  England  as  an  act  of  defiance  —  a  deliber- 
ate encouragement  of  the  rebellion  which  Fisher  had 
been  so  actively  concerned  in  preparing.  He  was  re- 
quired to  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the  Crown. 
Sir  Thomas  More,  as  his  dearest  friend,  was  involved 
in  the  same  fate  and  pressed  with  the  same  demand. 
They  refused.  Stern  times  required  stern  measures. 
They  were  both  executed  —  both  victims  to  the  Pope's 
cunning  or  the  Pope's  folly. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  Henry's  conduct  in 
the  matter.  Erasmus  was  busy  contemplating  his  own 
offered  promotion,  not  without  some  natural  pleasure ; 
not,  perhaps,  without  an  intention  of  accepting  it  if 
his  health  would  allow.  The  news  from  England  was 
a  terrible  interruption  of  his  meditations.  Fisher  had 
been  among  the  warmest  of  his  English  friends.  Sir 
Thomas  More  had  been  more  than  a  friend  —  the  most 
affectionate  of  his  companions,  the  most  constant  of  his 
defenders,  the  partner  of  his  inmost  thoughts.  The 
fatal  story  first  reached  him  as  a  rumour.  "  The 
King  of  England  "  (he  writes  to  Dainian  a  Goes) 1 
"  has  been  savagely  punishing  some  of  the  monks.    He 

1  Ep.  incclxxxiY. 


Lecture  XX.  417 

has  imprisoned  the  Bishop  of  Rochester  and  Sir 
Thomas  More.  News  from  Brabant  report  that  they 
have  been  put  to  death.  I  trust  it  is  but  an  idle 
tale." 

If  true,  it  was  of  ill  omen  for  the  council.  Eras- 
mus speaks  of  the  rumour  again  in  a  letter  to  Latomus, 
as  still  unconfirmed,  but,  highly  as  he  thought  of 
Henry,  as  not  necessarily  incredible. 

Bale,  August  14,  1  •">.;:>. 

My  life  has  been  long  (he  said  *)  if  measured  by 
years.  Take  from  it  the  time  lost  in  struggling 
against  gout  and  stone,  it  has  not  been  very  much  after 
all.  You  talk  of  the  great  name  which  I  shall  leave 
behind  me,  and  which  posterity  is  never  to  let  die. 
Very  kind  and  friendly  on  your  part ;  but  I  care  no- 
thing for  fame  and  nothing  for  posterity.  I  desire 
only  to  go  home  and  to  find  favour  with  Christ.  The 
French  who  fled  hither  from  last  winter's  persecution 
have  been  allowed  to  return  to  Paris.  The  prophet 
says  the  lion  roars  and  the  people  tremble.  The 
other  side  are  trembling  now  in  England.  Certain 
monks  have  been  put  to  death  as  traitors.  There  is  ;i 
constant  report  here,  and  probably  enough  a  true  <>ii'\ 
that  the  King,  when  he  heard  that  the  Bishop  of 
Rochester  had  been  made  a  cardinal  by  Paul  III.,  had 
him  out  of  prison  and  cut  his  head  off — a  fine  red 
hat  for  a  bishop.  More  is  said  to  have  been  executed 
too.  This  is  not  certain;  but  I  wish  he  had  not  im- 
plicated himself  in  a  dangerous  business,  and  had  left 
theology  to  the  divines. 

The  Pope  seems  in  earnest  about  a  council,  but  I 
do  not  see  how  a  council  is  to  meet  as  the  world  now 
stands.  Lower  Germany  swarms  with  Anabaptists; 
Minister,  as  you  know,  is  taken  ;  but  there  has  been  a 
dangerous  riot  in  Amsterdam.  At  Lewis  Bere's  sug- 
gestion, I  wrote  to  the  Pope.  ITis  Holiness  spoke  of 
me  in  high  terms,  and  mentioned  me  for  a  cardinalate, 

1  Bp.  mcclxxxvi. 


418  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

Health  and  fortune  were  the  difficulties.  It  seems  no 
one  can  be  a  cardinal  who  has  not  a  private  income  of 
3,000  ducats,  but,  alas !  I  can  scarce  put  my  head  out 
of  my  room  or  draw  a  breath  of  air  which  has  not  been 
warmed  artificially  —  and  am  I  to  be  thinking  of  red 
hats  ?  However,  I  am  glad  that  the  Pope  wishes  me 
well.1 

Erasmus's  health  was  now  manifestly  failing ;  the 
literary  pirates  chose  the  opportunity  to  prey  upon 
him  when  he  could  not  defend  himself.  His  writing's 
commanded  an  immense  sale,  and  they  were  publishing 
his  private  letters,  fragments  of  his  early  writings,  and 
anything  they  could  get  hold  of. 

TO   THE   BISHOP   OF   CRACOW.1 

Bale,  August  31,  1535. 

Whatever  I  may  write,  however  carelessly,  finds  its 
way  into  type,  and  I  cannot  prevent  it.  Thus  I  am 
kept  continually  at  work  revising  and  correcting. 
They  have  even  got  hold  of  old  exercises  of  mine  at 
school,  and  publish  them  for  what  they  can  make  by  it. 
I  was  dangerously  ill  in  the  spring.  I  was  ordered 
change  of  air,  and  was  carried  back  to  Bale  in  a  chair 
in  which  for  several  years  I  had  driven  about  in 
Freyburg.  The  Bale  people  had  prepared  a  set  of 
rooms  which  they  thought  would  please  me.  The  city 
which  I  left  seven  years  back  in  revolution  is  now 
cpiiet  and  orderly.  I  have  still  ill-wishers  here,  but 
at  my  age,  and  with  my  experience,  I  am  in  no  more 
danger  at  Bale  than  elsewhere.  I  do  not  mean  to  stay 
long.  I  shall  return  to  Freyburg  when  a  house  which 
I  have  bought  there  is  ready  for  me.  By-and-by, 
perhaps,  I  may  go  into  Burgundy,  the  wine  of  that 
country  being  necessary  for  my  health.  The  carriers 
spoil  what  they  bring  here  by  opening  the  casks  and 

1  Ep.  mcclxxxvii.,  abridged. 


Lecture  XX.  419 

diluting  what  they  leave  with  water.     But,  indeed,  1 
cannot  hope  to  be  ever  well   again,  either   here   or 
anywhere.     I  was  delicate  as  a  child.     I  had  too  thin 
a  skin,  and  suffered  from  wind  and  weather.     In  my 
stronger  days  I  did  not  mind  my  infirmities,  but  now 
that  I  am  but  skin  and  bone  I  feel  them  all  again.     I 
am  worse  or  better  according  to  the  weather.      My 
comfort  is  that  the  end  cannot  be  far  off.     You  are 
taken  care  of,  and  are  not  allowed  to  overwork  your- 
self.    I  am  kept  for  ever  in  the  mill,  do  what  I  may 
to  escape  from  it.     Bonfires  are  blazing  for  the  Em- 
peror's victories  in  Africa.    lie  is  said  to  have  stormed 
the    Goletta.     Miinster   is  taken  and  the  insurgents 
punished.     The  Anabaptists  are  crowding  in  hither 
from  Holland.     I  am  glad  that  the  Emperor  is  doing 
well,  wherever  he  may  be ;  but  I  wish  he  had  stayed 
in  Germany  and  saved  us  from  these  creatures.    These 
Anabaptists  are  no  joke.     They  go  to  work  sword  in 
hand,    seize  towns,   drive  their  creed  down  people's 
throats,  set  up  new  kings  and  queens,  and  make  their 
own  laws.     Last  winter  there  were  troubles  in  Paris. 
Bills  were  posted  threatening  the  King  for  persecuting 
what  they  called  the  Word  of  God.     Four-and-twenty 
of  the  authors  of  these  writings  were  executed.    Many 
of  the  nobles  fled.     The  King  has  recalled  them,  and 
promised  them  liberty  of  conscience  if  they  will  leave 
politics  alone.     Some  say  he  was  advised  to  be  moder- 
ate by  the  King  of  England,  some  by  the  Pope.     You 
will  learn  from  a  letter  which  I  enclose  the  fate  of  Sir 
Thomas  More  and  the  Bishop  of  Kochester.     They 
were  the  wisest  and  most  saintly  men  that  England 
had.     In  the  death  of  More  I  feel  as  if  I  had  died 
myself,  but  such  are  the  tides  of  human  things.     AVc 
had  but  one  soul  between  us.     The   Pope  has  created 
a  few  cardinals  for  the  Synod,  and  proposed  to  make 
me  one  of  them.     Objections  were  made  to  my  small 
fortune,  my  age  and  infirmities.     Now  they  oner  me 
other  dignities,  which  I  shall  not  accept.     A  poor,  half- 
dead  wretch  such  as  I  ain  cannot  be  tempted  into  grand 
idle  company  merely  that  I  may  end  my  life  as  a  rich 


•120  Life  and  Letters  of  Erasmus. 

man.     I  am  pleased  by  the  Pope's  letter  to  me,  but 
the  ox  is  not  fit  for  the  saddle.1 

This  was  written  on  August  31,  1535,  and  it  is 
the  last  which  I  shall  have  to  read  to  you.  Others 
followed,  but  of  no  particular  moment,  and  in  the 
autumn  and  winter  his  health  gradually  sank.  No- 
thing happened  to  cheer  his  spirits.  The  red  hat  he 
might  have  had  if  he  wished,  but  he  did  not  wish. 
The  Pope  had  no  more  thoughts  of  the  council.  His 
whole  mind  was  bent  on  punishing  the  insolence  of 
Henry  of  England.  Kings  and  Popes  had  ceased  to 
interest  Erasmus.  He  lived  long  enough  to  hear  of 
the  fate  of  Anne  Boleyn.  He  may  have  smiled  if  he 
knew  that  she  was  no  sooner  gone  than  the  Emperor 
and  Francis  were  both  competing  to  secure  Henry's 
vacant  hand  for  one  of  their  kinswomen.  But  popes 
and  kings  and  Anne  Boleyn  were  not  important  to  a 
man  like  Erasmus,  with  the  great  change  ever  in  sight 
of  him.  In  early  life  death  had  seemed  an  ugly  ob- 
ject to  him.  When  his  time  came  he  received  it  with 
tranquillity.  He  died  quietly  at  Bale  on  July  12, 
1536,  and  was  buried  in  state  in  the  cathedral. 

I  have  left  myself  no  time  for  concluding  reflections, 
and  I  do  not  know  that  any  reflections  are  necessary. 
I  have  endeavoured  to  put  before  you  the  character 
and  thoughts  of  an  extraordinary  man  at  the  most 
exciting  period  of  modern  history.  It  is  a  period  of 
which  the  story  is  still  disfigured  by  passion  and  preju- 
dice. I  believe  that  you  will  best  see  what  it  really 
was  if  you  will  look  at  it  through  the  eyes  of  Erasmus. 

1  In  another  letter  he  says  on  the  same  subject:  "Some  of  my 
friends  at  Rome  wish  to  provide  the  income  required  for  the  red  hat, 
and  promote  me  whether  I  will  or  no.  They  mean  it  seriously. 
The  Pope,  six  of  the  cardinals,  and  the  Portuguese  Ambassador  are 
moving  for  me.  I  have  written  to  say  that  I  will  not  be  provided  for 
by  benefice  or  pension," 


INDEX. 


Act  of  Appeals,  402,  407. 

Act  of  Dissolution  of  Monasteries,  19. 

Act  of  Succession  (after  birth  of  Eliza- 
beth), 107,  409. 

Act  of  Supremacy  :  a  test  of  loyalty,  409, 
414. 

"  Adagia"  (Erasmus's  work):  specimens 
of  its  satire  and  wit,  50  ;  its  reception 
by  the  clergy,  51. 

Adolf,  son  of  the  Lady  of  Vere,  74  sq. 

Adrian  of  Utrecht  (afterwards  Pope 
Adrian  VI.) :  a  schoolfellow  of  Eras- 
mus, 3 ;  Charles  V.'s  tutor:  made  a 
cardinal,  287;  elected  Pope,  209  ;  de- 
sires to  reform  the  Roman  Curia,  303 ; 
the  mass  of  corruption  that  needed 
cleansing,  307;  his  position  towards 
Erasmus,  308  ;  pressing  invitations  to 
Erasmus  to  come  to  Rome  :  the  hitter's 
replies  and  counsel  as  to  the  treatment 
of  Luther's  movement,  309  sqq. ;  death 
of  Adrian,  312. 

Agricola,  Rudolph  :  foretold  Erasmus's 
fame,  4. 

Albert,  Cardinal.  See  Mentz,  Archbish- 
op of. 

Aldington  (Kent)  :  Erasmus  appointed 
to  the  benefice,  and  the  sequel,  94. 

Aldrich  (master  of  Eton),  a  friend  of 
Erasmus,  221. 

Aleander  (Papal  Nuncio  to  Saxony),  215, 
231  «/</.,  254,  269". 

Ammonius  (Papal  agent  in  London),  a 
friend  of  Erasmus,  112;  the  hitter's 
advice  to  him  on  his  elevation  to  dig- 
nity, 115. 

Amsterdam  in  the  fifteenth  century,  1  ; 
Anabaptist  riota  there,  417. 

Anabaptists:  Erasmus's  opinion  of  them, 
spreading  over  Germany,  317; 
Charles  V.'s  edicts  against,  365 ;  ac- 
count of  their  tenets,  357  ;  one  burnt 
heretic  In  Paris,  368;  the  rising 
at  Hunster,  and  its  punishment,  413 ; 
their  growth  in  the  Low  Countries, 
117  ;  Erasmus's  account  of  their  meth- 
ods, 119. 

Anderlac,  Erasmus  at,  291. 

Anderliu,  r'austus  (poet  -  laureate)  :  a 
friend  ot  Erasmus  at  Paris,  21  ;    oi 

pected  by i to  have  been  tin- author 

oi  "Julius  II.  Exclusus,"  136. 

"Angelical  Doctor,"  the, 

tntonia,  a  friend  oi  Erasmus,  34. 

Antwerp  in  the  fifteenth  century,  ' 


Appeals,  Act  of,  402,  407. 

Aquinas,  Thomas  :  Dean  Colet's  opinion 
of  him,  99. 

"Arcana'  liters,"  what  Erasmus  meant 
by,  67. 

Arnoldus,  a  friend  of  Erasmus,  25. 

Augsburg,  Bishop  of  :  Letter  of  Erasmus 
to,  350;  liberality  towards  the  latter, 
377;  his  efforts  tor  peace  between 
Catholics  and  Lutherans,  383  .«■/. 

Augsburg,  Confession  of  :  drawn  up  by 
Philip  Melanchthon,  379. 

Augsburg,  Diet  of :  summoned  by  Charles 
V.  to  consider  1 1  it-  condition  oi  the 
country,  373  ;  description  of  the  meel 
ing,  379 sqq.  ;  issues  an  edict  command- 
ing the  restoration  of  Catholic  worship, 
38(3 ;  some  incidents  of  the  discussion, 

380;   failure  of  an  attempt   to  arrange 

a  concordat,  3,v7  ;  impossibility  of  en 

forcing  the  edicts,  398. 
Augustine  (an  associate  of  Erasmus),  71. 
Augustine,  Cardinal :  letter  of  Erasmus 

to,  on  the  libels  uttered  by  Catholics 

against  him,  395. 
Atigustinian     Canons:     Erasmus's    life 

with,  14  ;  their  method  of  getting  him 

into  their  order,  16;  temporary  suc- 
cess, 10  ;  failure  to  get  him  back  after 
he  left  them,  is,  i;ii  tqq. 

Aurotinus,  Cornelius,  a  friend  of  Eras- 
mus, 24. 

Authors  of  hooks:  their  remuneration 

in  Erasmus's  days,  319. 

"  Babylonish  Captivity  "  (Luther's 
work),  286. 

"  Bacalao,"  meaning  of,  224. 

Bale:  Erasmus's  description  of  a  jour- 
ney thence  to  Lou  vain,  221  ."/</■ ;  Eras- 
ettledat,  with  Froben,3O0  ;  rapid 
spread  oi  the  Beformatlon  doctrine  • 
there,  369  ;  greal  deal  ruction  ol  li 
and  wall  painting*  In  churches,  369; 
Erasmus  Leaves  the  city,  360 ;  his  rear 
for  making  t  he  change,  800  ;  his 
return  to,  U8;  his  death  and  burial 
there,  BO. 

Baptism  :  Erasmus's  \  lew  as  to  the  time 
for  administering  11 

Baptiata,  Doctor  :  Erasmus's  travelling 
companion  to  his  sons,  83. 

Barbara,  Abbot  ol  :  tottej  ol 
to, 

Barbirius,  Peter,  287. 


422 


Index. 


Battus,  Jacob,  a  faithful  follower  of 
Erasmus,  2S  sq. ;  letter  to  Mouutjoy 
about  Erasmus,  49. 

Bavaria,  Duke  of,  391. 

Beeket's  tomb  at  Canterbury,  97,  221. 

Berakl,  Nicholas,  281. 

Bere,  Lewis,  417. 

Berne  :  a  "pious  fraud  "  practised  there, 
249. 

Berquin,  Louis  (a  friend  of  Erasmus)  : 
burnt  at  Paris,  3G1. 

Bersala,  Anna.     See  Vere,  the  Lady  of. 

Bible,  the  :  neglect  of  its  study  in  Eras- 
mus's time,  119  sq.  ;  Luther's  transla- 
tion into  vernacular  German,  299. 

Bishops  and  monastic  orders,  contests 
between,  20. 

Bishops  :  Erasmus's  denunciation  of 
their  tyranny  and  evil  lives,  121. 

Boleyn,  Anne  :  her  marriage  with  Henry 
VI II.,  408. 

Bologna  :  Erasmus  there  (1504),  84  ;  an- 
nexed to  Papal  territory,  85. 

Bombasius,  Paulus  (Professor  at  Bo- 
logna),  217. 

Book-trade,  the,  in  Erasmus's  time,  319. 

Bruges  iu  the  fifteenth  century,  1  ;  Eras- 
mus there,  259. 

Brussels  in  the  fifteenth  century,  1  ; 
Erasmus's  visit  to,  180. 

Burgundy,  Duchy  of,  iu  the  fifteenth 
century,  1. 

Burlesquing  Scripture :  a  trick  of  the 
monks,  123. 

Cain,  Erasmus's  imaginary  legend  of,  40. 

Cajetan,  Cardinal,  215,  232,  269,  399. 

Calvin  :  his  rise  as  a  Reformer,  339. 

Cainbray,  Bishop  of  :  obtains  Erasmus's 
release  from  the  Augustinians,  18 ; 
treatment  of  him,  18  sqq.  ;  sends  him 
to  study  at  Paris,  20;  dissatisfaction 
with  him,  55  ;  makes  inquiries  into  his 
manner  of  life,  02  sq. ;  Erasmus  Mat- 
ters him,  71. 

Cambray :  the  Queens'  conference  at, 
3G6  :  the  Peace  of,  3G7  sq. 

Cambridge  :  Erasmus's  lectures  on  Greek 
there  in  150C,  83,  87  ;  he  returns  there 
at  Bishop  Fisher's  instigation,  110; 
his  dislike  for  the  place,  112  sqq.  ;  his 
opinions  on  the  junior  teachers  there, 
118  ;  the  authorities  forbid  the  reading 
or  the  sale  of  Erasmus's  writings,  13S. 

Campegio,  Cardinal :  believed  that  Eras- 
mus was  the  author  of  "Julius  II.  Ex- 
clusus,"  13G ;  told  him  that  he  was 
suspected  of  abetting  Luther's  move- 
ment by  anonymous  writings,  235 ; 
consults  with  him  about  Luther's  case, 
2G9 ;  Erasmus's  reply,  269 ;  another 
consultation  before  the  Diet  of  Worms, 
274 ;  Campegio's  second  mission  to 
Germany,  315  ;  sent  as  legate  to  settle 
Henry  VIII. 's  divorce  case,  340,  3G8 ; 
at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg,  379. 

Cantelius,  a  companion  of  Erasmus  iu  his 
youth,  13. 

Capito,  Fabricius,  a  preacher  at  Ba"le,186. 


Capnio  (=  Reuchlin),  2. 

Carlstadt :  his  book,  in  German,  on  the 
Eucharist,  328 ;  his  advance  from  a 
denial  of  the  sacraments  to  Anabaptism 
and  social  anarchy,  339. 

Carpi,  Prince  of ;  dissatisfied  with  Eras- 
mus's book  against  Luther,  331 ;  Eras- 
mus's reply,  332. 

Catechism,  the  Lutheran,  313. 

"  Catena  Aurea,"  the,  99. 

Catherine  of  Aragon,  Queen  :  anecdote 
of,  228 ;  story  of  her  marriage  to  Henry 
VIII.,  367;  the  steps  taken  to  get  her 
assent  to  a  divorce,  367  ;  Erasmus's 
opinion  of  the  case,  373,  406,  407. 

Catherine  of  Sienna :  her  interviews  with 
Christ,  13. 

Catholics,  English :  made  preparations 
to  rebel  against  Henry  VIII.,  408. 

Cavajal  (Franciscan)  :  a  work  of  his  con- 
demned at  Salamanca,  365. 

Celibacy,  clerical,  Erasmus's  denuncia- 
tion of,  121,  126. 

Centum  Gravamina:  the  list  of  charges 
against  the  clergy  drawn  up  by  the 
German  Diet,  371. 

Ceremonies,  use  and  abuse  of,  351. 

"Certainty"  the  pearl  of  price:  New- 
man's and  Luther's  opposite  views, 
389. 

Chapuys,  Eustace  (Imperial  ambassador 
to  England)  :  proof  of  clerical  disloy- 
alty given  in  his  despatches,  408, 
414. 

Charles,  Archduke  (afterwards  King  of 
Spain,  etc. ;  later  Emperor  Charles 
V.) :  offers  Erasmus  a  bishopric,  180. 
See  Charles  V. 

Charles V.,  Emperor:  elected  in  succes- 
sion to  Maximilian,  240 ;  Erasmus's 
opinion  thereon,  240  ;  the  election  ex- 
cites the  fears  of  the  Pope,  France,  and 
England,  33S ;  the  league  formed 
against  him,  and  what  came  of  it,  313 
sq. ;  Charles  captures  Rome  and  im- 
prisons the  Pope,  339  ;  Erasmus's  re- 
ply to  the  Emperor's  request  for  his 
counsel,  340 ;  Erasmus's  fear  that  the 
Pope  would  become  Charles's  creature, 
341 ;  the  Emperor's  difficult  position 
with  regard  to  the  Church  in  Spain, 
345;  he  assents  to  the  demand  that 
Erasmus's  writings  should  be  exam- 
ined by  the  Inquisition,  345 ;  letter  in 
reply  to  Erasmus's  appeal  to  him,  345 ; 
summary  of  Charles's  position  after 
the  capture  of  Rome,  346  ;  makes  peace 
with  Clement,  347  ;  opposed  to  the  di- 
vorce of  Henry  VIII.,  347  ;  his  edicts 
against  Anabaptists,  355  ;  policy  of  re- 
pression of  the  Reformers,  355  ;  strait- 
ened finances,  3G2  ;  position  in  regard 
to  Henry  VIII. 's  divorce,  368,  371 ; 
goes  to  Italy  to  be  crowned  by  the 
Pope,  368 ;  at  the  Diet  of  Augsburg, 
379 ;  the  pantomime  produced  before 
him,  380 ;  a  caricature  of  him  pub- 
lished, 385;  his  position  after  Augs- 
burg, 390  sq. 


Index. 


423 


Charnock,  Richard  (Prior  of  St.  Mary's 

College,  Oxford),  40. 
Chelsea  :  Erasmus  with  Sir  T.  More  at, 

97. 
"  Christiau    Knight's     Manual,     The " 

(work  by  Erasmus),  82,  119. 
Christian  religion  :  Erasmus's  opinion  of 
its  condition  in  his  day,  05  iqq.  ;  what 
its  practice  consisted  of  at  that  time, 
119. 
Christiamis,  a  friend  of  Erasmus,  23. 
Christopher,  a  literary  wine-mercliaut, 

222. 
Church  courts,  and  their  practices,  in 

England,  371. 
Clement  VII.,  Pope,  successor  of  Adrian 
VI.,   312;   asks  the:  aid  of  Erasmus 
against  Luther,  315  ;  rewards  Erasmus 
for  the  "De  Libero  Arbitrio,"  328  j 
urges  Charles  V.  to  extreme   action 
against  the  Lutherans,  383 ;  desirous 
of  making  terms  with   Henry  VI 1 1. , 
402 ;    wavering   about    the    proposed 
council,  409,  111  ;  bis  death,  412. 
Clergy :   how   they  received   Erasmus's 
New  Testament,  127;  depraved  private 
lives,  230 ;   the  powers  they  claimed 
for  the  priesthood  since  the  twelfth 
century,  250  sq. ;   ludicrous   instance 
of   ignorance,   354 ;   immunities  from 
common  law  in  England,  371  ;  made  a 
trade  of  saying  musses,  370  ;  Erasmus's 
position  towards  those  who  married, 
401. 
"  Cuena  Pontifiealis,"  Erasmus's  inter- 
pretation of,  50. 
Colet,  Dean  :  Erasmus  introduced  to,  39  ; 
the  latter's  esteem  for  him,  40,  43 ; 
Colet's  theological  lectures  censured 
by  a   bishop,  48;  made   Dean  of  St. 
Paul's  :  Erasmus's  letter  of  congratu- 
lation, 80;  Colet  helped  by  Erasmus 
to  found  St.  Paul's  School,  97  ;  tin-  lat- 
ter's sketch  of  his  life  and  character, 
97  sq. ;    Colet's  low   opinion   of    the 
morality  of  priests  and  monks,  98  sq.  ; 
opinions  on  education,  100;  attach  of 
the  bishops  on  him,  and  the  result,  101 
sqq.  ;  his  opinion  of  Sir  Thomas  Afore, 
107  ;    reproves  Erasmus  for  his  care- 
lessness in  regard  to  money,  117  ;  his 
death,  241. 
Collationary  Fathers :  Erasmus  and  his 
brother  placed  under  their  care,  7;  his 
account  of  their  system  and  per  .mil 
character,  7  ;  their  arguments  to  get 
him  into  their  order,  12  sq. 
"Colloquies,"   the    (Erasmus's    work), 
220;  Spanish  translation  widely  reel 
in  Spain,  -U  1. 
Columbus,  Christopher,  1. 
"Commentary   on    the    Psalms,"    Lu- 
ther's :  met  with  Eraamn  '  I  ;i|  ; 

2:11. 

Comunidades  (Spain  |,  revolt  of  the,  240. 

Confession  of  Augsburg,  the,  879. 

Confession  of  sins  to  priests  ;  Ei  ismus's 
opinion  thereon,  246  .«/.,  247,336;  the 
secrets  of  the  confessional  notorioui  ly 


betrayed,  351 ;  anecdote  of  a  sleepy 
confessor,  353;  confession  abused  by 
priestly  villany  to  extort  money,  304  ; 
and  especially  by  mendicant  "inn-, 
401. 

Coronellus,  Ludovicus,  a  friend  of  Eras- 
mus, 303. 

Council,  General :  general  demand  for, 
409;  the  Pope's  objections,  and  their 
reasons,  4<>!i  sq. 

Courtier's  life,  a :  Erasmus's  letter  of 
counsel  to  friends  at  the  Emperor's 
Court,  297  sq. 

Cracow,  Bishop  of,  letter  of  Erasmus 
to,  418. 

Cranmer,  Archbishop:  continued  War- 
ham's  pension  to  Erasmus,  94:  pro- 
nounced the  decree  divorcing  Henry 
VIII.  and  Catherine,  107. 

Crauvelt,  Francis,  Councillor  of  Bruges, 
274. 

Cromwell,  Thomas,  179. 

Croy,  Cardinal  of,  243. 

Curia,  the  Roman  :  Pope  Adrian's  desire 
to  reform  it,  303  ;  a  mass  of  corruption 
and  personal  prolligacy,  307. 

Dalbon,  Abbot,  letter  of  Erasmus  to,  on 
the  wTong-headedneaB  of  the  Catholic 
authorities,  393. 

Darcy,  Lord  (afterwards  leader  of  the 
Pilgrimage  of  Grace):  drew  up  the 
attain. lei-  of  Wolsey,  371. 

Denmark,  King  of.  288. 

Denmark,  spread  ol  LutheraniHm  in,  384. 

Deventer,  Erasmus  at  school  at,  3. 

Diet,  the  German :  their  list  of  wrongs 
(the  Centum  Gravamina)  against  tho 
clergy,  371. 

Dissolution  of  Monasteries,  Ait  of,  19. 

Dorset,  Maniuis  of  (uncle  of  Lady  Juno 
Grey),  20. 

Dunstable:  Henry  VIII. 's  divorce  de- 
creed there,  407. 

Eastminsteb,  an  old  name  of  St.  Paul's, 

101. 
Eck,  a  Dominican  enemy  of  Luther, ' 

writes  an  insolent  lettei  to  Erasmus, 

380. 
Edmond,  Prince,  to. 
Education,  the  meaning  of,  321. 
"Educational   Institute,"  an:   ■  work 

written  by  Erasmus  for  Prince  Clin  lis, 

181. 
Educational    Institutions   of    England: 

Colet's  opinion  of,  Urn. 

Egmond,  S  tchol  icka 

the  writings  ol   I  !l  .    Din      I  H 

Erasmus'    di   criptiouoia   01  ns  « hlch 

occurred  between  him  and  Egmond, 

27:.  tqq. 
Egnatlus:  letter  of  Erasmus  to,  on  his 
lion  before  and  aft.  1  the  "  battle 

of  the  dogmas," 
Eirenicon:  Erasmus's    ketch  of he 

bad  planned,  31 

Kllliain.    I  16. 

"  Kiiilieiiidi. hi     Milite.     Clin  ti.mi,"    a 


424 


Index. 


work  by  Erasmus,  82  ;  his  account  of 
how  lie  came  to  write  it,  82. 

"Encomium  Moriie."  See  Erasmus: 
His  Writings. 

England  :  its  condition  at  the  close  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  37  ;  Erasmus's 
reception  there,  39  ;  his  delight  with 
the  country,  45  ;  the  exportation  of 
specie  forbidden,  48  ;  Erasmus's  visits 
in  1501  and  150G,  83,  87  ;  his  disappoint- 
ment with  his  treatment,  115 ;  his 
continued  affection  for  the  country, 
193 ;  his  final  departure  from  it,  127, 
169  ;  considers  the  people  justly  proud 
of  their  country,  342  ;  the  steps  which 
led  to  the  abolition  of  the  authority 
of  Rome,  370  sqq.  ;  its  state  after  the 
decree  of  Henry  VIII. 's  divorce,  408. 

Epigram  of  Erasmus  on  Sir  T.  More's 
belief  in  the  Real  Presence,  326. 

Epimeuides,  the  story  of,  applied  by 
Erasmus,  09  sq. 

Epiphanius,  St.  :  had  personal  experi- 
ence of  the  Gnostic  love  feasts,  34. 

"  Epistolse  obscurorum  Virorum  "  (Von 
Hutten's  work),  103  ;  Erasmus's  opin- 
ion of  the  book,  194. 

Erasmus:  origin  of  his  names  ("  Desi- 
derius"  and  "  Erasmus  "),  2  ;  story  of 
his  father  and  mother  and  his  birth, 
2  ;  some  details  of  his  school  life,  3  ; 
Erasmus  and  his  brother  left  orphans, 
4  ;  their  guardians  propose  to  send 
them  into  a  monastery,  5  ;  Erasmus's 
early  passion  for  learning,  7  ;  his  ac- 
count of  the  lives  of  the  Oollationary 
Fathers,  with  whom  the  boys  were 
placed,  7  ;  their  guardians  endeavour 
to  make  monks  of  them,  10 ;  Peter 
yields,  but  Erasmus  holds  out,  11  ; 
persistent  efforts  to  induce  him  to 
yield,  12  ;  as  a  compromise  he  becomes 
a  boarder  in  a  house  of  Augustinian 
Canons,  14  ;  his  life  with  them,  14  ;  he 
becomes  a  novice,  15  ;  the  manner  of 
life  of  these  monks,  16  sq.  ;  how  he 
was  induced  to  take  the  final  vows, 
10  ;  disgust  at  his  position,  10  ;  the 
Bishop  of  Cambray  obtains  his  nom- 
inally temporary  release,  18. 

Erasmus  :  Youth  :  his  desire  to  see  more 
of  the  world,  20  ;  ordained  priest,  21 ; 
the  Bishop  of  Cambray  makes  him  an 
allowance  for  study  in  Paris,  21  ;  stu- 
dent life  at  the  University,  21 ;  he 
acquires,  and  teaches,  Greek,  22 ; 
glimpses  of  his  life  and  habits  given 
in  his  letters,  23  sq.  ;  admiration  for 
Laurentius  Valla,  24  ;  accused  of  ir- 
regularities of  life,  25 ;  desires  to  take 
a  degree  at  Bologna,  25  ;  distinguished 
men  among  his  pupils  :  Lord  Mount- 
joy,  Mr.  Thomas  Grey,  20 ;  sketch  of 
the  character  of  the  Lord  of  Vere,  20  ; 
visit  to  his  castle  (Tourneheni)  and 
introduction  to  the  Lady  of  Vere,  28 ; 
the  latter,  for  a  time,  his  tutelary 
spirit,  29;  description  of  her,  29; 
specimen  of  his  mocking  humor,  30 ; 


weak  health  and  pecuniary  difficulties, 
30  ;  period  of  despondency,  31  ;  signs 
that  his  habits  were  not  strictly  in 
accordance  with  his  profession,  34 ; 
invited  to  England  by  Mountjoy,  34  ; 
Erasmus's  knowledge  of  languages, 
35  ;  character  of  his  intellect,  35. 

Erasmus  :  First  Visit  to  England  (1497) : 
introduction  by  Mountjoy  to  Thomas 
More,  Colet,  Grocyn,  Linacre,  39 ;  his 
first  impressions  of  the  country  and 
the  society,  39  ;  at  Oxford  :  descrip- 
tion of  a  symposium  there,  40  ;  exam- 
ple of  Erasmus's  improvising  power, 
41  sqq.  ;  his  opinion  of  Colet,  44  ;  ad- 
miration of  English  country  life,  45 ; 
and  of  the  custom  of  ladies  saluting 
guests  with  a  kiss,  45  ;  introduced  to 
Henry  VII. 's  family  at  Eltham,  46; 
composes  a  laudatory  poeni  on  the 
King  and  his  family,  46 ;  disappointed 
in  his  expectations  of  making  a  posi- 
tion in  England,  47  ;  opinion  on  Colet's 
attempt  to  improve  theology,  48 ; 
leaves  England :  misadventure  with 
Custom-house  officials  at  Dover,  48 
sq.  ;  publishes  the  "  Adagia,"  50 ; 
liberality  of  Archbishop  Warhani  to- 
ward Erasmus,  51  sq.  ;  hankering  for 
Rome  and  Bologna,  53 ;  the  Lady  of 
Vere  offers  him  a  benefice  in  reply  to 
his  appeal  to  her  for  pecuniary  help, 
53. 

Erasmus :  In  the  Netherlands  and 
France :  engaged  in  examining  libra- 
ries, 55 ;  death  of  the  Lord  of  Vere, 
50 ;  Erasmus  again  begging  of  his 
widow,  5G ;  his  determination  to  be 
free  from  servitude  to  anyone,  57  ; 
his  close  study  of  Greek,  and  transla- 
tions from  Greek  authors,  5S ;  writes 
flattering  letters  to  his  three  chief 
patrons,  58  ;  his  carelessness  in  money 
matters,  GO  ;  relations  with  the  Bishop 
of  Cambray,  02  ;  flies  to  Orleans  from 
the  plague  in  Paris,  62  ;  his  work  at 
Orleans,  03 ;  saves  a  heretic  from  pun- 
ishment, 04 ;  his  readiness  to  advise 
those  who  consulted  him,  05 ;  object 
of  the  work  he  was  busy  over  :  the  de- 
struction of  the  gross  abuses  which 
had  overgrown  true  Christianity,  05 
sqq,  ;  preparing  his  edition  of  the  New 
Testament  and  of  the  works  of  Je- 
rome, 07 ;  his  desire  to  depose  scho- 
lastic theology  :  studies  Duns  Scotus 
and  the  "  Angelical  Doctor,"  07  ;  de- 
scription of  Scotism,  69  ;  Erasmus 
seeks  pecuniary  aid  by  flattering  let- 
ters, 71  ;  instructions  to  Battus  for 
the  same  purpose,  74  sqq.  ;  appeal  to 
the  Lady  of  Vere,  78  ;  translation  of 
Lucian's  Dialogues,  81  ;  the  "Enchei- 
ridion  Militia  Christiani,"  82. 

Erasmus:  Visits  to  England  and  to 
Italy  :  date  of  his  second  visit  to  Eng- 
land, 83  ;  journey  to  Italy,  83  sq.  ; 
introduced  to  Julius  II.  at  Bologna, 
84  ;  wrote  a  pamphlet  at  his  request, 


Index. 


425 


85 ;  lectures  at  Sienna :  his  pupils 
there,  85  ;  gratifying  reception  at 
Rome,  85  ;  his  delight  with  the  city  : 
rejects  the  efforts  made  to  retain  him 
there,  86  ;  returns  to  Paris,  86  ;  third 
visit  to  England :  lectures  at  Cam- 
bridge, 87  ;  intimacy  with  Prince 
Henry  (afterwards  Henry  VIII. ),  87 
sq.  ;  friendship  with  Archbishop  War- 
ham,  S9 ;  leaves  England  and  goes 
again  to  Rome :  his  intention  to  re- 
main there,  89 ;  Mountjoy  presses  liim 
to  return  to  England,  90. 

Erasmus:  Fourth  Visit  to  England: 
Henry  VIII.  invites  Erasmus  to  come 
to  his  Court,  91  ;  the  King's  offers  and 
Erasmus's  expectations,  93  ;  Warham 
gives  him  a  benefice,  but  changes  it  to 
a  pension,  91 ;  Erasmus's  income  at 
this  time  :  Mountjoy's  liberality,  9-1 ; 
disappointed  in  his  expectations,  Eras- 
mus hankers  after  Rome,  95  ;  associa- 
tion and  journeys  with  Dean  Colet, 
97  ;  Erasmus  helps  him  in  founding 
St.  Paul's  School,  97  ;  his  portrait  of 
Colet,  97  J  Erasmus  charged  with  be- 
ing the  author  of  the  "Epistolse  6b- 
Bcurorum  Virorum,"  103;  his  portrait 
of  Sir  Thomas  Morn,  103  sqq.  ;  Eras- 
mus his  guest  at  Chelsea,  1US;  com- 
parison of  their  characters,  108  ;  Eras- 
mus's epigram  on  More's  belief  in  the 
Real  Presence,  109;  lectures  at  Cam- 
bridge, 110;  pecuniary  straits,  111; 
details  of  his  life,  112  sq. ;  an  attack 
of  stone,  113;  irksomeness  of  his  life 
in  England,  115  sqq.  ;  Colet's  condi- 
tional offer  of  pecuniary  help,  117; 
intercourse  with  Cambridge  digni- 
taries, 118;  last  interviews  \\ith 
Bishop  Fisher  and  Sir  T.  More,  128  ; 
the  King's  endeavor  to  detain  him  in 
England,  169;  his  final  departure, 
li'.O;  another  difficulty  with  Custom- 
house officers,  169. 

Erasmus:  ///  tin'  Netherlands:  the  Au- 
gust inians  demand  his  return  to  his 
old  convent,  170;  his  reply,  170  sqq.; 
he  appeals  to  1  he  Pope,  17:; ;  his  letter 
to  Lambert  Grunnius  enforcing  his 
appeal,  I13sqq.;  denunciation  of  the 
immoral  lives  and  methods  of  monks, 
171;  Erasmus  obtains  his  freedom, 
179;  at  Brussels;  introduced  to  Arch- 
duke Charles  (afterwards  Emperoi 
Charles  V. ),  180  :  offered  eccli 
cal  jii-oni' .t  i .  .m .  in;  suppoi  I  Reuchlin 
in  the  battle  of  the  languages,  181  ; 
Erasmus  at  Louvain,  183;  rea 
his  hopes  of  a  peaceful  Reformation, 
186. 

I   nius  :    Period  Oj  <  '•■"'<  It :    virulent 

antagonism  ol  the  religious  oi 
wards  him,  190 ;  in    works  denounced 

to    Rome,  191 J    I  •  0  X.    decides  in   fa- 

\,,in  ol  Era  urn  .  192 ;  troublei 
from   the  violence  of    iii-<  own    and 
■  els  in  Germany,  194  : 
attack  of  Pfeffercorn's  party,  I 


and  of  the  Carmelite  Egmond,  196; 
Erasmus's  friends  at  this  period,  198. 
Erasmus:  Luther's  Rebellion :  Luther's 
and  Erasmus's  methods  compared, 
201  ;  Erasmus's  first  opinions  of  the 
outbreak,  205  ;  his  dread  that  it  would 
only  generate  another  dangerous  form 
of  intolerance,  206;  he  keeps  quite 
aloof  from  Luther  and  from  his  writ- 
ings, 207  ;  the  Louvain  monks  attrib- 
ute the  outbreak  to  Erasmus,  208  ;  he 
writes  to  Cardinal  Wolsey  explaining 
his  position,  209  sq. ;  indignation  at 
the  Pope's  method  of  treating  Lu- 
ther's movement:  letter  thereon  to 
Abbot  Volzius,  213;  renewed  bittel 
ness  of  the  clerical  parly.  215  sqq.  . 
Erasmus  longs  to  be  bach  in  England, 

217  ;   his  manner  of  life  at  this  period, 

210  ;  amusing  description  of  a  journey 
from  Bale  to  Louvain,  221  sq. :  ab- 
surd charges  against  his  New  Testa- 
ment, 226  sq.  .'  Luther's  appeal  to 
him,  229;  Erasmus's  hesitation:  its 
causes,  229  sqq.  ;  the  reply, 233  ;  letter 
to  Henry  VIII.,  236;  estimate  ol  that 
king's  character, 238 ;  tic  election  ol 
Maximilian's  successor,  '-':;s  sag. 
Erasmus:  After  Charles  VS* Election: 
Erasmus's  opinion  of  the  new  emperor, 
240  ;  raised  to  the  dignity  of  Imperial 
Councillor,  '.Ml  :  attacked  by  Hoch- 
strat,  Egmond,  and  Edward  Lee, 242 
his  own  statement  of  his  position 
towards  Luther,  2-4-1;  and  of  the 
hitter's  position  towards  the  Church, 
215;  Erasmus's  protest  against  injus- 
tice to  Luther,  246;  Philip  Blelanch- 
thou's  appeal  to  Erasmus,  250;  the 
reply,  251  ;  signs  of  the  working  of 
Erasmus's  mind  on  the  matter,  263; 
he  foresees  what  a  struggle  is  impend- 
ing, 268;  letter  to  i.eo  JL  explaining 
his   position   towards    Luther,   263; 

Erasmus's  protest    against     Egiinuid°> 
denunciation  of  him   from   the   pulj.it , 

266;    conference  of    Imperial   Conn 
cillors,   207  ;     Erasmus's    letter    to 
Campegio,  attributing  the  whole  eon 
\  ol  ion  to  the   religious  ordei 

Luther    should    not     be    < lemned 

before    he   has   1 n    heard    in   his  de- 

fence,  270  ;  account  of  a  curiou 

between    Krasniiis    :o  id,    276 

sqq. ;  Erasmus's  aid  sought  tor  by 
both  Bides  before  the  I  >i«-t  of  Worm-, 
278;  his  view  of  episcopacy  In  the 
earl]  Church,  "T:1  sq.  ;  he  is  attacked 
by  both  sides.  281. 
I  |r  i  inn       A/h  r  i/"    I'  <"■'•' 

a   leiinis    il [yielding 

Luther  asaui 1  towtui 

Diet,  to  Brugi 

the   Louvain  Carmelites, 
specimens  of  the  methods  of  the  latter, 
I]  ;    numerous  friend     ol    Era  mus 
ion.   to   write  against    Luther, 

203  ;    his  hesitation  to  >  - i '  i  >  ■ 

sq.}  the  rut 1 1 1 1 \  oi  di  putatloni  upon 


420 


Index. 


Christian  dogmas,  29C ;  he  believed 
that  Luther  was  constructing  a  Pro- 
testant theology  which  might  be  as 
intolerant  and  dangerous  as  the  Cath- 
olic, 297  ;  Erasmus's  interpretation  of 
the  moral  of  Lucian's  <fiAoi//eu5>;?,  300. 

Erasmus  :  After  the.  Election,  of  Adrian 
VI.:  Erasmus  has  renewed  hopes  of 
reform,  302  ;  letter  to  Adrian,  giving 
his  views  of  what  should  be  done,  304  ; 
letter  to  Duke  George  of  Saxony  on 
Luther's  "  excellent  cause,"  and  dep- 
recating the  use  of  force  to  put  him 
down,  305;  Adrian  invites  Erasmus  to 
Rome,  309  ;  the  reply  :  Erasmus's 
advice  to  the  Pope,  309  ;  Hutten's 
attack  on  Erasmus,  and  the  reply,  31G. 

Erasmus  :  After  the  Election  of  Clement 
I 'II.  .•  Erasmus's  sketch  of  a  projected 
"  Eirenicon,"  317  ;  the  treatise  "  De 
Libero  Arbitrio  :  "  why  Erasmus  chose 
this  subject  against  Luther,  320  sqq.  ; 
"  Hyperaspistes,"  320  ;  strenuous  ef- 
forts to  bring  about  a  peace,  320  ; 
Clement's  remuneration  for  Erasmus's 
work,  328  ;  discontent  of  the  Catholic 
party  with  the  work,  329,  331  ;  Eras- 
mus's reply  to  this  discontent,  329 
sqq. ;  Sir  T.  More  and  Eaber  desire 
him  to  repeat  the  attack,  333  ;  his 
reply  to  the  latter,  334  ;  his  sketch  of 
the  reforms  he  desired,  335  sq.,  340; 
how  Erasmus  regarded  the  breach  be- 
tween the  Emperor  and  the  Pope, 
341  ;  the  confusions  in  Germany  :  the 
folly  of  mouks  and  theologians  the 
real  danger,  343 ;  Erasmus's  works 
submitted  to  the  examination  of  the 
Inquisition,  345  ;  the  Emperors'  edict 
against  the  Reformers'  followers,  347  ; 
Erasmus  pleads  for  moderation,  347 
sq.  ;  denounces  the  abuse  of  the  con- 
fessional, 351 ;  the  vicious  lives  of 
monks,  friars,  and  nuns,  351  sqq.  ;  the 
crass  ignorance  of  the  clergy,  354  ; 
yet  he  determines  not  to  forsake  the 
Church,  350  ;  denounces  Anabaptists, 
but  would  not  have  them  burnt,  357  ; 
his  belief  that  Henry  VIII.  was  really 
tlie  writer  of  the  work  against  Luther, 
358. 

Erasmus  :  His  later  Years:  iconoclasm 
of  the  Reformers  at  BSle,  359  ;  Eras- 
urns  removes  to  Freyburg,  300  ;  inter- 
view with  GDcolampadius,  300  ;  de- 
nouncea  the  punishment  of  heretics, 

301  ;  irregularity  of  Erasmus's  income, 

302  ;  liberality  of  the  Fuggers  (Augs- 
burg bankers)  towards  him,  3G3  ;  his 
picture  of  the  overstrained  rope  (the 
condition  of  modern  Church  doctrine): 
strand  by  strand  giving  way,  304  ;  his 
expectations  from  the  Peace  of  Cam- 
bray,  308  ;  opinion  about  Henry 
VIII. 's  proposed  divorce,  373;  Eras- 
mus out  of  favour  with  the  authorities 
at  Rome,  374  ;  letter  in  self-defence  to 
the  Papal  Secretary,  375 ;  on  the 
futility  of  arguments  about  the  Real 


Presence,  37G  ;  abuses  of  the  Mass  by 
priests,  37G  ;  the  number  and  diverse 
rank  of  Erasmus's  correspondents, 
377  ;  the  advance  of  education  among 
the  higher  classes,  378. 

Erasmus  :  The  Diet  of  Augsburg :  the 
representation  of  Erasmus's  character 
in  the  pantomime  presented  to  the 
Emperor,  380 ;  his  great  desire  for 
toleration  and  concession,  3S1  ;  crit- 
icisms on  the  work  of  the  Diet,  382 
sqq.  ;  headstrongness  on  both  sides, 
385 ;  Erasmus  attacked  by  the  Do- 
minican Eck,  380  ;  some  details  of  the 
Diet,  387 ;  what  religion  meant  to 
Erasmus,  391  ;  he  foresees  that  force 
will  be  of  no  avail  against  the  Lu- 
theran movement,  391 ;  he  complains 
that  he  is  "shot  at  from  all  sides," 
393 ;  his  extensive  correspondence 
with  literary  men  on  matters  con- 
cerned with  scholarship,  394 ;  his 
influence  with  some  of  the  more  mod- 
erate Protestants,  390  sq. 

Erasmus  :  His  last  Days :  he  receives 
offers  of  high  promotion  from  Prince 
Ferdinand   and   from    Clement  VII., 

399  sq.  ;  his  denunciation  of  the  de- 
generacy of  the  sons  of  St.  Francis, 

400  ;  immorality  of  travelling  monks, 

401  ;  a  joke  on  the  marriage  of 
widows,  402  ;  defence  of  SirT.  More's 
treatment  of  heretics,  403  ;  death  of 
Erasmus's  dearest  English  friend, 
Warham,  400  ;  further  expressions  of 
opinion  on  Henry  VIII.  's  proposed  di- 
vorce, 400, 408  ;  Erasmus's  reply  to  the 
charge  that  he  had  encouraged  Henry 
VIII.  to  shake  off  the  Pope's  author- 
ity, 407 ;  Erasmus  consulted  about 
the  coming  council,  410 ;  attack  on 
him  by  Nicholas  He.rborn  (Francis- 
can), 412  ;  Paul  III.,  successor  of 
Clement  VII.:  Erasmus  again  in  fa- 
vour at  Rome,  412  ;  a  serious  illness, 
413  ;  his  reception  of  the  news  of  the 
execution  of  More  and  Fisher,  410  sq. ; 
the  proposal  to  make  Erasmus  a  car- 
dinal, 419  ;  his  death  and  burial  at 
Bale,  420. 

Erasmus:  His  Writings:  the"Adagia:" 
the  lash  applied  to  ecclesiastics  and 
ecclesiasticism,  50  sqq.  ;  reception  by 
the  clergy,  51  ;  its  success,  52  ;  his 
object  in  preparing  his  edition  of  the 
New  Testament,  and  of  the  works  of 
Jerome,  07 ;  what  he  meant  by 
arcanse  literce,  07  ;  translation  of 
Lucian's  Dialogues,  81  ;  the  "  En- 
cheiridion  Militis  Christiani:"  occa- 
sion of  writing  it,  82  sq. ;  the  publi- 
cation of  his  New  Testament,  119  ; 
description  of  the  work,  and  speci- 
mens of  his  charges  of  degradation  of 
religion  against  the  bishops,  seculars, 
and  monks,  121  sqq. ;  enormous  cir- 
culation of  the  work,  127  ;  reception 
by  the  clergy,  127  ;  the  "  Encomium 
MoriaB"  ("Praise   of  Folly")— sug- 


Index. 


427 


gested  by  Sir  T.  More,  105,  129 ;  the 
title  a  play  on  More's  name,  129  ; 
description  of  Folly,  129  ;  satire  on 
theologians  and  their  vain  disputa- 
tions, 130 ;  on  the  lleliyiosi  el  Monach  i, 
132  ;  on  the  evil  conduct  and  character 
of  mendicant  friars,  132  ;  on  princes 
and  courtiers,  popes,  cardinals,  and 
bishops,  133;  on  priestly  and  monastic 
absurdity  of  ignorance,  134 ;  great 
repute  of  the  work,  137 ;  a  burst  of 
clerical  wrath,  138  ;  an  outcry  against 
the  study  of  Greek,  138  sqq. ;  an 
"  Educational  Institute  "  (written  for 
Prince  Charles),  181 ;  production  of 
the  edition  of  Jerome's  works,  184 
sq. ;  Leo  X.  accepts  the  dedication, 
185;  publication  of  the  Paraphrases 
on  the  New  Testament  books,  192  ; 
his  "Apology,"  196 ;  publication  of 
the  "  Colloquies,"  220  ;  object  and 
character  of  the  work,  220  sq.  ;  edi- 
tion of  St.  Augustine's  works.  262  j 
"  Spongia  "  (Erasmus's  reply  to 
Hutteu's  attack  on  him),  310  ;  "  De 
Libero  Arbitrio"  (work  against  Lu- 
ther), 320  sqq.  ;  "  Hyperaspish  s  " 
(rejoinder  to  Luther's  "  De  Servo 
Arbitrio  "),  320. 
Erasmus  :  Letters  of,  to  — 
Adrian  VI.,  Pope,  304,  307,  309  sqq. 
^Emilius  ab  JSnrilio,  302. 
Ammonius  (  Papal  agent  in  Loudon), 

112,  115,  180, 191. 
Anderlin,  Faustus,  15,  52. 
Andomar,  396. 
Anonymous.  25,  31,  14,  51,  55,  CO,  05, 

08,  181,  197,  252,  278,  285  sq.,  292, 

297,  298,  301,  310,  317,  320,  335,  351, 

354,  411(1. 
Arnoldus,  25. 
Augsburg,  bishop  of,  350. 
Augustine,  Cardinal,  395. 
Aurotiims,  Cornelius,  24. 
Barbara,  Abbot  of,  386. 
Barbirius,  Peter,  287. 
Battus,  James,  53, 59,  01,03.5'/.,  70,  75. 
Ber,  Lewis,  356  sq. 
Berald,  Nicholas,  281. 
Bertin,  the  Ibbol  of,  71,  114,  110. 
Bombasine,  Paulus,  217. 
Botzemus,  363. 
i  BBsarius,  194  sq. 
Campegio,  Cardinal,   136    7,  209,  383 

sq. 
Cann,  Nicholas,  342. 

pito,  Fabricius,  1  36. 
Carpi,  Prince  "t,  332. 
Chisigat,  Francis,  261. 
Christianus,  23. 

Colet,  Dean,  11,  W,  B6,  in,  11. 
Coronellu  1,  Ludovicu  . 
Cochl 

Cracow,  Bishop  "f.  "  8. 
<  'r:m\  ilt ,  Francis,  271. 
Dalbon,  Abbot,  393. 
Egnattas, 
Erfurt,  the   Rector  of  the  school  'it 

(Luther's),  207. 


Everard,  Nicholas  (President  of  Hol- 
land), 232. 

Faber  (Dominican),  334. 

Faber,  John,  403. 

Falco,  30. 

Fisher,  Bishop,  193,  242. 

Fisher,  Robert,  39. 

Gauden,  William,  31. 

George  of  Saxony,  Duke,  305, 329,  342, 
347  sq.,  393. 

Gerard  of  Nimegen,  260. 

Giles,  Peter,  189. 

Gocleuius,  Conrad,  259. 

Godsclialk,  265. 

Goes,  D.iiuian  a,  4ii7.  410. 

Grey,  Mr.  Thomas, 

Grunnius,  Lambert,  5,  173. 

Grymanus,  Cardinal,  95. 

Guildford,  Sir  Henry,  235. 

Henry,    Prince     (afterwards     Henry 

Vlil.i,  88,  236. 
Herman,  Elector  (Archbishop),  348. 
Hildesheim,  Bishop  of,  376. 
Hutten,  tJlrich  von,  103. 
Jonas,  Jodcii  us,  2?  I 

Eretzer,  391. 

Latoiuus,   117. 

Laurinus,  Marcus,  210. 

Leonardi,  395. 

Leo  X.,  263. 

Lipsius,  Martin,  354. 

Luther,  Martin,  233. 

Marliauus,  Bishop  Louis,  253. 

Mechlin,  President  of  Seriate  at,  304. 

Bfelaachthon,  Philip,  260,  327,  381. 

Meutz,  Archbishop  of  (Cardinal  Al- 
bert), 241,  243. 

Mexia,  377,  411. 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  212,  275.  369. 

Mountjoy,  Lord,  28  sq.,  44,  295,  370. 

Naneteusis,  Cardinalis,  1 15. 

Nassau,  the  Secretary  of  Priuce  of, 
293. 

Pace,  Dr.,  193,  2*5. 

Palencia,  Bishop  .if,  303. 

Palermo,  Archbishop  of,  296. 

Peutinger,  Conrad,  207. 
Mug,  Julius. 

Pirkheimer,  183,  196,260, 300  sq.,  369. 

Raphael,  Cardinal,  1 

Rhenanus,  Beatus,  221. 

Rinckius,  382. 

Badolel . 

Bchudelin,  John,  291. 

Servatiu    ■  lugustinian),  170. 

Sixtiuus,  Joannes,  M). 

Bpalatin,  George,  240,  269. 

Trent,  Bishop  of,  385,  399. 

TunatalL  Cuthbert,  21s,  374. 

1  tenhoVe,  1  Ihai  \i  »,  361,  100. 

Wi. .  1  be  1  tdj  of,  78. 
.  2l3. 

Warham,  ArcbbUhoi  341, 

Wi 
Buchai  I  opinion  of    the 

dot  trine  "f  the  Real   Pr« 

1  be  administration  "I 

the  Bacramenl 
Europe    In  1407,  1  .  the  position  "f  >>•* 


428 


IikI 


ex. 


military  power  after  the  Peace  of  Cam- 
bray,  300. 

Evangelicals:  name  given  to  the  Re- 
formers, 396. 

Everard,  Nicholas  (President  of  Hol- 
land), 232. 

Faber  (Dominican  monk) :  urges  Eras- 
mus to  write  more  fully  against 
Luther,  334  ;  Erasmus's  reply,  334. 

Faber,  John,  letter  of  Erasmus  to,  in 
defence  of  Sir  T.  More,  403  sq. 

Falco,  letter  of  Erasmus  to,  30. 

Fasting,  extravagant  importance  at- 
tached to,  351. 

Ferdinand,  Archduke,  1S9,  350  sq.,  3C0, 
369,  379,  399. 

Fisher,  Bishop  (Rochester) :  induces 
Erasmus  to  go  to  Cambridge,  110  ;  op- 
poses Church  reform  in  England,  372  ; 
Erasmus's  high  opinion  of  his  charac- 
ter, 378  ;  Fisher  endeavours  to  procure 
a  Catholic  invasion  of  England,  408 ; 
committed  to  the  Tower,  400 ;  made 
cardinal  by  Paul  III.,  415;  refuses  to 
acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the 
Crown,  410;  executed,  416. 

Fisher,  Robert,  a  friend  of  Erasmus,  39. 

Fitzjames,  Bishop  (Loudon) :  his  en- 
deavour to  put  down  Dean  Colet,  101  ; 
what  came  of  it,  102. 

Flodden  Field,  battle  of,  103. 

Florence,  the  name  under  which  Eras- 
mus described  his  case  to  the  Pope,  8 
«.,  173,  17S. 

France,  Henry  VIII. 's  war  with,  93;  in- 
stigated by  Julius  II.,  102. 

France,  Queen  of :  arranged  prelimina- 
ries of  peace  at  Cambray,  36G. 

Francis  of  Assisi,  Erasmus's  dream  of, 
400. 

Francis  I.  :  invited  Erasmus  to  Paris, 
1S9 ;  taken  prisoner  at  Pavia,  338 ; 
gets  dispensed  by  the  Pope  from  his 
obligations  under  the  Treaty  of  Ma- 
drid, 3G3 ;  watched  the  burning  of 
heretics  in  Paris,  413. 

Franciscans :  their  persistent  hatred  of 
Erasmus,  305 ;  denunciations  of  him 
by  the  friars  in  Spain,  377  ;  his  reply, 
377. 

Free  cities,  German :  spread  of  Luther- 
auism  in,  384. 

Free  will  :  what  is  really  meant  by  the 
term,  320 ;  the  absolute  rule  of  right 
of  Catholic  theologians,  322;  Luther's 
theory,  323  ;  Erasmus's  opinion,  381. 

Frewin  Hall,  Oxford,  40. 

Freyburg :  Erasmus  removes  thither 
from  BSle,  300. 

Friars  :  their  insolence  towards  bishops, 
20  ;  how  they  obtained  their  influence 
among  the  people,  00  ;  their  evil  con- 
duct and  character,  132. 

Friesland:  spread  of  Lutheranism  in, 384. 

Frobeu,  the  famous  printer,  181  ;  Eras- 
mus takes  up  his  abode  with  him,  300. 

Fuggers  (bankers  at  Augsburg) :  their 
liberality  to  Erasmus,  303,  377,  395. 


(Iattinarius  (secretary  to  Charles  V.)  : 
letter  to  Erasmus  conveying  the  Em- 
peror's views  regarding  the  healing  of 
the  Lutheran  schism,  337. 

Gauden,  William,  a  friend  of  Erasmus, 
31. 

George  of  Saxony,  Duke  :  opposed 
equally  to  Luther  and  to  monks  and 
bishops,  305 ;  not  satisfied  with  Eras- 
mus's book  against  Luther,  328  ;  let- 
ter of  Erasmus  to,  347  ;  his  desire  that 
Erasmus  should  write  against  Luther 
again,  309. 

German  :  Erasmus's  ignorance  of,  306. 

Germany  :  Luther  called  upon  to  organ- 
ise the  Church,  313  ;  its  liturgy,  min- 
isters, and  Catechism,  313 ;  religious 
confusions  following  on  Luther's 
movement,  339,  343 ;  the  reformed 
States  refuse  to  comply  with  the 
Augsburg  edict,  395. 

Gerrard  (father  of  Erasmus):  story  of 
his  marriage,  2  sq.  ;  his  death,  4. 

Gerrard,  Margaret,  mother  of  Erasmus, 
2 ;  her  care  for  him,  3 ;  death,  4. 

Gerrard,  Peter,  brother  of  Erasmus,  4  ; 
consultation  with  his  brother  about 
joining  the  Collationary  Fathers,  9 ; 
Peter  joins  their  body,  11  ;  his 
wretched  life  and  death,  11. 

Ghent  in  the  fifteenth  century,  1. 

Giles,  Peter,  a  pupil  of  Erasmus,  189. 

Glapio,  Alexander,  a  friend  of  Erasmus, 
318. 

Goclenius,  Conrad,  259. 

Godschalk,  Moderator  of  the  University 
of  Lou  vain,  265,  275. 

Goes,  Daniian  a,  letter  of  Erasmus  to, 
stating  his  position  of  neutrality  in  re- 
gard to  Henry  VIII. 's  divorce,  407. 

Goude,  4. 

Grace  :  Erasmus's  opinion  on,  381. 

Grnecized  German  names,  2. 

Greek  language  :  a  rare  acquisition  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  22  ;  monks'  ob- 
jection to  the  study  of  the  language, 
68  ;  the  study  of  it  denounced  at  Ox- 
ford, 138  ;  Sir  T.  More's  defence  of 
classical  studies,  139  sqq. 

Grey,  Mr.  Thomas,  a  pupil  of  Erasmus, 
26 ;  pecuniary  liberality  to  his  master, 
30. 

Grocyn,  Erasmus  introduced  to,  39. 

Grunnius,  Lambert  (Prothonotary  at 
Rome) :  Erasmus's  appeal  to  the  Pope 
through  him,  5,  173  sqq.  ;  his  reply, 
179. 

Grymanus,  Cardinal,  95. 

Guildford,  Sir  Henry,  235. 

Hammes  Castle  (Calais  Pale),  169. 

Henry  VII.  :  state  of  England  under  his 
rule,  37  sq.  ;  his  family  at  Eltham,  46. 

Henry  VIII.  :  Erasmus  introduced  to 
him  when  Prince  Henry,  46  ;  letter  to 
Erasmus,  88 ;  his  accession  to  the 
throne,  90  ;  desires  to  attach  Erasmus 
to  his  Court,  90 ;  autograph  letter  to 
him,  91 ;  what  the  letter  meant,  92 ; 


Index. 


429 


his  war  with  France,  93 ;  his  treat- 
ment of  the  bishops'  charges  against 
Dean  Colet,  102  ;  interview  with  the 
Dean,  102  ;  high  opinion  of  Sir  T. 
More,  107 ;  progress  of  the  French 
war,  110;  Erasmus's  opinion  of  Hen- 
ry's character,  236  sq. ;  Henry's  an- 
swer to  Luther,  which  gained  him  the 
title  of  Defender  of  the  Faith,  30G ; 
the  reasons  for  his  seeking  a  divorce 
from  Catherine,  338  ;  was  he  really 
the  writer  of  his  book  against  Luther? 
358  ;  end  of  the  war  with  France,  366  ; 
position  of  the  divorce  question,  306 
sq.  ;  he  determines  to  have  the  ques- 
tion settled  at  home,  in  defiance  of  the 
Pope,  402 ;  date  of  the  beginning  of 
the  agitation  for  a  divorce,  406  n. ; 
the  final  sentence  of  Cranmer's  court 
at  Dunstable,  407 ;  Henry's  reply  to 
Paul  III.'s  overtures  for  a  reconcilia- 
tion, 415  ;  the  execution  of  Bishop 
Fisher  and  Sir  T.  More,  416. 

Herborn,  Nicholas  (Franciscan) :  antag- 
onist of  Erasmus,  412. 

Heresy,  fifteenth  century  notions  of, 
248  ;  heresy-hunting  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tries, 64 ;  many  heretics  burnt  in 
Paris,  414. 

Herman,  Elector,  Archbishop  of  Co- 
logne (afterwards  a  Lutheran),  348  sq. 

Hildesheim,  Bishop  of :  letter  of  Eras- 
mus to,  on  the  Real  Presence  and 
Transubst initiation,  376. 

Hochstrat  (Hebrew  scholar)  :  an  enemy 
of  Erasmus,  242  ;  and  of  Luther,  260. 

Holidays,  Church,  excessive  number  of, 
351. 

Holland,  President  of,  232. 

Horace,  Erasmus's  youthful  liking  for,  3. 

Hungary  :  overrun  by  the  Turks,  347. 

Hutten,  Ulrich  von  :  author  of  the 
"Epistolaeobscurorum  Virorum,''  103, 
241,  243,  255  ;  his  attach  on  Erasmus, 
and  the  hitter's  reply,  316  ;  his  death, 
316. 

"  Hyperaspistes,"  Erasmus's  rejoinder 
to  Luther,  326. 

Ionoeance,  clerical  :  ludicrous  instance 
of,  364. 

[mages:  their  removal  from  churches 
by  Luther's  followers.  313  ;  Erasmus's 
opinion  of  their  use,  335;  great  de- 
struction of  them  In  Bale,  359. 

Immaculate  Conception:  doctrine  dis- 
puted between  the  Franciscans  and 
the  Dominicans,  249  r». 

In  C&na  Domini,  the  Bull:  Luther  in- 
cluded l>v  name  In  it,  282. 

Indulgences,  the  Papal  doctrine  of,  203; 
the  sale  of,  aa  a  subsidy  for  St.  Peter's 
at  Rome,  204  ;  Erasmus's  view  on  the 
doctrine,  364. 

Inquisition,  Spanish:  Erasmus  threat- 
e 1  by  the,  345,  354. 

Invocation  of  Saint        I  v"  w 

on  the  practice,  364. 

Irish  rebellion  against  Henry  VIII., 408. 


Jerome,  Erasmus's  edition  of,  110,  112  ; 
printed  at  BSle  by  Froben,  18J  ;  dedi- 
cated, by  permission,  to  Leo  X..  185. 

Jonas,  Jodocus,  a  friend  of  Luther,  283. 

Julius  II.,  Pope,  S3:  description  of  him, 
84  ;  instigated  the  war  of  Henry  VIII. 
with  France,  102;  his  death  (1513) 
ends  the  war,  117. 

"Julius  11.  Exclusus"  (a  satire  on  the 
Pope):  its  production  in  Paris,  135; 
question  of  its  author,  128;  was  it 
Erasmus?  135  sq.,  146;  translation  of 
the  Dialogue,  149  sqq. ;  Erasmus's 
denial  of  being  its  author,  195. 

Justification  by  faith  only  i  Erasmus's 
view  of  the  theory,  336,  381. 

Kidnapping  boys  and  girls  for  religious 

orders,  5. 
Kissing,  frequency  of,  as  a  .salutation  by 

English   women,  noted   by  Erasmus, 

45. 
Knight,  William,  406. 
Krctzer,  letter  of  Erasmus  to,  391. 

Latin,  the  common  tongue  of  literary 
men  in  Erasmus's  time,  35 ;  Erasmi 
objection  to  its  use  in  Church  service, 
122. 

Latomus,  letter  of  Erasmus  t<>.  417. 

Laurinus,  Marcus,  Canon  of  Bruges,  216. 

"Lax  religion,"  meaning  of,  367. 

Laymen,  English  ;  their  domestic  con- 
versation compared  with  that  of 
monks,  38. 

League,  Protestant,  386,  390. 

Lee,  Edward  (afterwards  Archbishop  of 
York) :  a  violent  opponent   of   Eras 
.  242,269,287. 

Leo  X.  :  successor  of  Julius  II  ,  11 1  ;  ap- 
proved Erasmus's  work  on  the  Greek 
Testament,  120;  accepted  the  dedica- 
tion of  Erasmus's  Jerome,  185;  recom- 
mended him  to  Henry  VI11.  for  an 
English  bishopric,  185;  decided  In 
Erasmus's  favour  against  the  Louvain 
theologians,  192;  the  great  sale  of  in- 
dulgences for  St.  Peter's,  and  what 
me  of  it,  203  tqq. ;  Leo  is  said  to 
have  called  the  Church  system  ■  pn 
Stable  fable,  '-'11  ;  determines  on  a 
fresh  crusade  against  the  Turks.  212 ; 
action  against  Luther,  214  tq. ;  issues 
a  Bull  against  him,  260  tq. 

" Libera Arbltrio.  t>  "(Erasmus's work 
against  Luther) :  why  I  nose 

this  subject.  320. 

Linacre,  Dr.  (afterwards  Henry  viii.'h 
physician  1 1  Erasmus  tntroduoed  t... 
39;  Linacre'a  a. hire  t"  him  about 
mone  .lis. 

LipsiUB,  Mart  in.  '-'-r<\. 

'■  Literal  huuianlores  i  "  meaning  "f  the 
tei in,  36. 

London  i  Erasmus's  visit  In  1 197,  38. 

Lotus  \n  Empire, Spain 

and  England  combined  »itli  the  Pi  pe 
against,  112;  Scotland  takes  his  side, 
lij ;  the  md  "I  the  war,  117. 


430 


Index. 


Louvain :  Erasmus  at,  18  sq.  ;  conspir- 
acy of  monks  against  him,  192 ;  con- 
tinuous attacks  of  preachers  on  him, 
192  ;  the  Louvain  theologians  attribute 
the  origin  of  Luther's  outbreak  to 
Erasmus,  208  sq.  ;  their  indignation 
against  Luther  aud  Erasmus,  243  sqq.  ; 
attack  renewed  after  the  sentence  on 
Luther,  286. 

Low  Countries,  the,  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  1. 

Loyola,  Ignatius :  his  dislike  of  Eras- 
mus's New  Testament,  122. 

Lucian :  Erasmus's  translation  of  his 
Dialogues,  81  ;  the  ftepi  top  tTrt  ixiadw 
avvovTuiv,  81 ;  the  ^lAoi/zeuS?;?  :  Eras- 
mus's application  of  it  to  his  own 
times,  300 ;  the  fondness  of  mankind 
for  lies,  300. 

Luther,  Martin :  his  early  life,  200 ;  he- 
comes  an  Augustinian  monk,  200  ;  his 
visit  to  Rome  compared  with  that 
of  Erasmus,  200  sq.  ;  teacher  and 
preacher  at  Wittenberg,  202  ;  the  sale 
of  indulgences  :  his  challenge  to  Tet- 
zel,  205 ;  how  Luther  followed  this 
up,  205  sq.  ;  Erasmus's  position  in  re- 
gard to  Luther,  205 ;  action  of  Leo  X. 
against  him,  214  sj.  ;  Luther's  letter  to 
Erasmus,  228  ;  the  latter's  reply,  233  ; 
his  views  on  Luther's  teaching,  243 
sqq. ;  Luther's  attack  upon  the  sys- 
tem of  spiritual  domination  of  the 
priesthood,  256  ;  burn's  Leo  X.'s  Bull 
and  the  Papal  Decretals,  265 ;  the  Diet 
of  Worms,  281 ;  Luther  unflinching, 
282 ;  outlawed,  283 ;  concealed  by  the 
Elector  in  the  Castle  of  Wartburg, 
283 ;  Erasmus's  letters  on  the  result  of 
the  trial,  284  sqq. ;  Luther's  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible  into  German  begun 
at  Wartburg,  299  ;  rapid  growth  of  the 
number  of  his  supporters,  306  ;  disso- 
lution of  religious  houses,  313 ;  de- 
struction of  images,  saints'  shrines, 
and  relics,  313  ;  Luther  recalled  from 
Wartburg  by  the  Elector  to  reorgan- 
ise the  Church,  313  ;  estimate  of  his 
income,  319  ;  his  doctrine  on  the  will, 
324  ;  and  on  predestination,  324 ;  "  De 
Servo  Arbitrio,"  his  reply  to  Erasmus, 
326 ;  his  works,  chiefly  in  German,  had 
only  a  limited  circulation,  343  ;  Eras- 
mus's belief  in  his  persistence,  355  ; 
Luther  not  present  at  the  Diet  of 
Augsburg,  379  ;  his  defence  of  the  po- 
sition taken  up  there  by  his  followers, 
387  ;  his  condemnation  of  "  Erasmian 
theology,"  and  of  Papal  "doctrines 
and  practices  which  are  outside  Scrip- 
ture or  against  Scripture,"  389. 

Madrid  Treaty  of  (Charles  V.  and  Fran- 
cis I.),  363. 

Magical  practices,  curious  story  of,  72, 

Maldonado,  Juan  :  on  the  methods  aud 
manners  of  Spanish  monks,  344. 

Margaret,  Princess  (afterwards  Queen  of 
Scotland),  46. 


Margaret,  Queen  Regent  of  the  Nether- 
lands, 350,  396. 

Marlianus,  Louis,  Bishop  of  Tuy,  in 
Gallicia,  253. 

Mary,  Princess  (afterwards  Queen  of 
France  aud  Duchess  of  Suffolk),  46, 
117. 

Mary,  Queen,  Regent  of  the  Nether- 
lands :  a  good  friend  to  Erasmus,  396. 

Mass,  the :  abuses  of  it  by  stupid  and 
vagabond  priests,  304  ;  many  of  the 
clergy  made  a  trade  of  saying  masses, 
376. 

Matteo,  Cardinal  (Sedunensis)  :  pub- 
licly accused  the  Dominicans  of  mur- 
der, 175,  178. 

Maximilian,  Emperor :  Erasmus  endeav- 
ours to  obtain  assistance  from  him, 
116  ;  defends  Reuchlin,  182  ;  his  death, 
233 ;  how  much  depended  on  the  choice 
of  his  successor,  238  sq. 

Mechlin,  President  of  the  Senate  at,  304. 

Medici,  Cardinal  de'  (afterwards  Pope 
Leo  X.),  a  friend  of  Erasmus,  86.  See 
Leo  X. 

Melanchthon  (=  Swartzerde),  2 ;  con- 
sults Erasmus,  250 ;  stood  by  Luther 
at  Worms,  283 ;  letter  of  Erasmus  to 
him,  on  Luther's  tendency  to  cause 
more  harm  than  he  cured,  327  sq.  ; 
Melanchthon  drew  up  the  Confession 
of  Augsburg,  379 ;  Erasmus's  letter  to 
him  about  the  Diet,  381 ;  his  reply  to 
Erasmus,  deprecating  the  violence  and 
fury  of  the  papal  advocates,  383 ;  his 
desire  for  peace,  383. 

Mentz,  Archbishop  of  :  his  share  in  the 
sale  of  indulgences,  204 ;  made  a  car- 
dinal, 226 ;  Erasmus  appeals  to  him 
for  justice  to  Luther,  243  sqq. 

Merit,  the  doctrine  of,  324 ;  Erasmus's 
opinion  on,  381. 

Mr]Tpa.yvpTai  (Lucian's),  mendicant 
friars  compared  to,  51. 

Mexia,  a  friend  of  Erasmus,  377,  411. 

Miltitz,  215,  232. 

Miracles :  lying  stories  set  about  by 
crafty  knaves,  351. 

Monasteries :  the  manner  of  life  of  their 
inmates,  16  ;  treatment  of  rebellious 
monks,  17,  evidences  of  their  degra- 
dation in  England,  19,  38 ;  summary 
of  the  pernicious  principles  on  which 
they  were  based,  6S;  monkish  habit 
of  burlesquing  Scripture,  123 ;  Eras- 
mus's account  of  their  depraved  lives, 
174 ;  their  continuous  endeavours  to 
prevent  the  circulation  of  his  works, 
343 ;  his  statement  of  disgusting  de- 
tails of  their  lives,  354. 

More,  Sir  Thomas :  on  the  beginning  of 
monastic  degradation,  19 ;  Erasmus 
introduced  to  him,  39 ;  More  intro- 
duces Erasmus  to  the  royal  children 
at  Eltliam,  46 ;  More's  admiration  of 
the  "  Epistola?  obscurorum  Virorum," 
103  ;  Erasmus's  description  of  his 
character,  103  sqq.  ;  his  domestic  life, 
105  ;  dislike  of  Court  life,  106  ;  writ- 


Index. 


431 


ings  and  religious  principles,  107  sq.  ; 
his  house  at  Chelsea,  108 ;  his  belief 
in  the  Real  Presence  in  the  Eucharist, 
109  ;  final  parting  with  Erasmus,  lis  ; 
More's  opinion  on  the  authorship  of 
"Julius  II.  Exclusus,"  136;  letter  of 
rebuke  to  Oxford  for  the  opposition 
to  the  study  of  Greek,  139;  passion- 
ate and  indignant  defence  of  Erasmus, 
143  ;  ambassador  to  the  Low  Countries, 
190;  warns  Erasmus  of  a  conspiracy 
of  monks  against  him,  191 ;  on  the 
Carmelite  Egmond,  197  ;  More's  con- 
viction that  spiritual  insurrection  must 
be  put  down  with  fire,  289 ;  he  urges 
Erasmus  to  follow  up  his  attack  on 
Luther,  333  sq. ;  representative  of 
England  at  Cambray,  366,  368;  ap- 
pointed Chancellor  in  place  of  Wolsey, 
370 ;  advocated  moderate  reform  of 
the  Church,  372 ;  his  hatred  of  Lu- 
theranism,  372;  joke  about  marrying 
widows,  402  ;  his  position  in  regard  to 
Henry  VIII.  's  proposed  Church  re- 
form, 402  ;  detestation  for  Lutheran 
demagogues,  402  ;  Erasmus's  defence 
of  him  to  John  Faber,  403 ;  More 
boasted  of  his  enmity  to  heretics,  403  ; 
his  defence  of  his  way  of  treating 
them,  404  sq. ;  refuses  to  take  the 
oath  enjoined  by  the  Act  of  Succes- 
sion, and  is  committed  to  the  Tower, 
409  ;  refuses  to  acknowledge  the  su- 
premacy of  the  Crown,  416 ;  executed, 
416. 

Morton,  Cardinal,  19 :  his  visitation  of 
religious  houses  in  England,  38. 

Mountjoy,  Lord :  his  son  a  pupil  of 
Erasmus,  26  ;  his  death,  61. 

Mountjoy,  Lord  (son  of  the  above) :  a 
pupil  of  Erasmus,  26 ;  pecuniar}'  lib- 
erality to  his  master,  30  ;  invites  him 
to  England,  34  ;  introduces  him  to  dis- 
tinguished Englishmen,  39 ;  succeeds 
to  the  title  and  estates  of  his  father, 
61 ;  letter  to  Erasmus  inviting  him  to 
the  Court  of  Henry  VIII.,  90;  con- 
ferred a  pension  on  Erasmus,  95  ; 
made  Governor  of  Hammes  Castle, 
169;  begs  Erasmus  to  write  against 
Luther,  293;  Erasmus's  reply,  295. 

Music,  modern  Church,  Erasmus's  ob- 
jection to,  122,  364. 

Nanf.tensis,  Cardinalis,a  friend  of  Eras- 
mus, 115. 

Netherlands,  the:  Erasmus  returns  there 
after  his  visit  to  England,  127. 

Netherlands,  (/ueen  Regent  of  the;  ar- 
ranged preliminaries  of  peace  at  Cam- 
bray, 366. 

New  Eagle,  Count  of,  223. 

Newman,  Cardinal  :  on  Protestant  tradi- 
tion on  the  state  of  t  lie  Church  before 
the  Reformation,  866  ;  his  view  of 
"certainty"  the  pearl  of  price. 

New      l<    tl nt:     Erasmus's     edition 

(Greek   text  and   Latin   trans] 

110, 1  \9sqq.  ;  Leo.  X.  approved  the  un- 


dertaking, 120  ;  specimens  of  the  notes 
iu  it:  on  clerical  celibacy,  1U1  j  con- 
duct of  popes  and  bishops,  121  ;  honour 
paid  to  relics,  121  :  on  tl»-  use  of  an 
unknown  tongue  in  Church  sen  ins, 
122;  Church  music.  122;  burlesquing 
of  Scripture  by  monks.  123:  vain  dispu- 
tations in  theology,  124  ;  profligacy  of 
the  clergy.  126;  enormous  circulation 
of  the  work,  127  ;  Sir  T.  More's  opin- 
ion of  it,  143;  Loo  X.  sanctioned  tin- 
work.  185;  Erasmus's  Paraphrases  on 
the  New  Testament,  192;  Comments 
on  the  Apostolic  Epistles,  226 ;  speci- 
mens of  ignorant  objections  to  Eras- 
mus's work,  227. 

Norfolk,  Duke  of :  succeeded  Wolsey  as 
Henry  VIII. 's  Prime  Minister,  372. 

Nun  of  Kent,  the,  94,  416. 

Nuns,  Convents  of  :  Erasmus  denounces 
the  immoral  lives  of  inmates,  I 

Obedience  :  what  monks  mean  1> 

(Ecolampadius :  interview  with  Erasmus 
at  BSle,  360. 

Origen,  Erasmus's  opinion  of,  87. 

Orleans,  Erasmus's  literary  work  in,  63. 

Oxford:  Erasmus  at  (1498),  39;  his  de- 
scription of  a  symposium  there,  10; 
clamour  against  his  writings,  138  ;  con- 
sequent opposition  to  the  study  Ol 
Greek,  138  ;  letter  to  the  University 
from  Sir  T.  More  on  the  subject,  139. 

Pace,  Dr.,  a  friend  of  Erasmus,  193,  217. 

Paintings  on  church  walls  :  whitewashed 
by  the  Reformers,  359. 

Palencia,  Bishop  of,  afriend  of  Erasmus, 
303. 

Palermo,  Archbishop  of  :  letter  of  Eras- 
mus to,  against  vain  theological   dl 
putes,  296. 

Pantomime,  the,  acted  before  Oharle   \ 
at  Augsburg,  ->^K 

Papal  authority  :  its  abolition  in  Eng- 
land, 373. 

Papa]  revenues:  the  sources  of,  202. 

Paraphrases  of  the  New  Testament, 
Erasmus's,  192,  194,  262. 

Paris:  student  life  ot  Erasmus  at,  21  ; 
picture  of  a  student's  lodging-house, 
23. 

Parliament,  the  (English)  of  1629:  its 
i  evolution,  871  ■"/• 

Patrons  of  literature  '  ■  (.pinion 

of,  61. 

Paul  III.  (successor  of  Clement  VII.): 
hopeful  signs  In  the  first  nets  of  Imh 

reign,  412,    invites   Erasmus    to   help 

liim  in  the  coming  council,  413;  over- 
tures to  Henry  \  ill..  06;  Paul  pro- 

j,,.  i  os    a    cardinal. 

ll.">  ;    rai  her    to    that 

rank,  and   the   result,  116  j    Erasmus's 

reception  ol  the  proposal  to  make  him 

I  cardinal.   117  .«/'/. 

Peutii  mad,  OounoflloT  pj   the 

Empire, 


432 


Index. 


Pfeffercorn,  a  converted  German  Jew  : 
his  denunciation  of  Hebrew  books,  182 
sq.  :  Erasmus's  opinion  of  him,  195. 

Ptlug,  Julius  :  his  appeal  to  Erasmus  to 
aid  the  cause  of  Church  reform,  396  ; 
the  reply,  397. 

Thilip,  Kins  (of  Castile) :  correspon- 
dence of  Erasmus  and  Prince  Henry 
(Henry  V11I.)  on  his  death,  8S  sq. 

Pilgrimage  of  Grace,  the,  371. 

Plague,  the,  in  England,  112  sq. 

Pole,  Cardinal  Reginald,  238. 

Prague,  Erasmus  invited  to,  235. 

"Praise  of  Folly,  The."  See  "Enco- 
mium Morise." 

Predestination,  the  Lutheran  conception 
of,  323*9'.  >  Erasmus's  opinion  on,  381. 

Priesthood,  Erasmus's  opinion  of,  3S1. 

Protestant  dogmas,  324. 

Protestant  League,  380,  390. 

Protestants,  origin  of  the  name,  383. 

Purgatory  :  Erasmus's  advice  regarding 
the  doctrine,  336. 

Raphael,  Cardinal,  a  friend  of  Eras- 
mus, 89. 

Real  Presence,  the  :  Erasmus's  epigram 
on  More's  belief  in,  109 ;  his  view  of 
the  Church's  belief,  350,  3S1  ;  Luther 
at  first  orthodox  in  this  belief,  370 ; 
Erasmus's  opinion  of  the  doctrine, 
376. 

Reformation  :  its  beginnings  in  England, 
370  sqq.  ;  the  authority  of  Rome  abol- 
ished there,  373. 

Reform,  Church  :  what  kind  Erasmus  de- 
sired and  hoped  for,  180  sqq.,  336,  340. 

Relics :  Erasmus's  denunciation  of  the 
exaggerated  honour  paid  to  them,  122  ; 
destruction  of  them  by  Luther's  fol- 
lowers, 313. 

Religious  houses  :  speedy  dissolution  of, 
by  Lutherans  in  Germany,  313. 

Religious  orders,  their  manner  of  en- 
trapping recruits,  6. 

Reucnlin  (=  Capnio),  2  ;  account  of  his 
life  and  learning,  182 ;  denounced  to 
the  Inquisition  by  the  Dominicans, 
182 ;  defended  by  Emperor  Maximil- 
ian, and  by  Erasmus,  182. 

Rhodes:  captured  by  the  Turks,  347. 

Ritual :  Erasmus's  protest  against  the 
excess  of,  349. 

Romans,  King  of  the,  399. 

Rome :  Erasmus's  visits  to,  85,  89  ;  his 
love  for  the  city,  115  ;  admiration  of 
life  there,  95  ;  invited  to  reside  there, 
with  a  handsome  income,  309. 

Rotterdam,  the  birthplace  of  Erasmus,  1. 

Sacraments  :  the  Catholic  and  the  Lu- 
theran theories  about,  323  ;  gross 
abuses  in  their  administration,  353. 

Sadolet  (Secretary  to  the  Pope) :  letter 
of  Erasmus  to,  condemning  the  man- 
ner in  which  Luther's  protest  and  at- 
tack had  been  met,  375. 

Saint-worship:  Erasmus's  protest  against 
its  extravagances,  349 ;   his  satire  on 


the  saints'  forbearance  under  the  in- 
sults of  iconoclasts,  359  sq. 

Savonarola,  249. 

Saxony,  (Frederick)  Elector  of  :  his  po- 
sition in  Luther's  movement,  204,  215 ; 
seeks  counsel  from  Erasmus,  231 ;  pro- 
cures the  election  of  Charles  (King  of 
Spain)  as  Emperor,  240  ;  calls  upon  Lu- 
ther to  organise  the  German  Church, 
313. 

Scholastic  theology,  68 ;  specimens  of 
the  vain  disputations  of,  123  sq. 

Scotists  :  their  reply  to  Laurentius 
Valla,  24 ;  Dean  Colet's  opinion  of 
them,  99. 

Scotland  :  takes  the  side  of  Louis  XII. 
in  the  French  war,  112. 

Scotus,  Duns  :  Erasmus's  treatment  of 
his  theological  system,  68  sq. 

Septuagint,  the,  145  sq. 

Servatius,  Father  (Augustinian) :  seeks 
to  recall  Erasmus  to  his  order,  170. 

Shrines  of  saints  :  destroyed  by  Luther's 
followers,  313. 

Sienna :  Erasmus  lectures  there,  85. 

Simony  in  the  Church  in  England,  371. 

Sin  :  the  Catholic  and  the  Lutheran  con- 
ceptions of,  322  sq. 

Sixtinus,  Joannes,  a  friend  of  Erasmus, 
40. 

Solyman,  Sultan  (Turkey),  289. 

Sorbonne  doctors,  the,  and  their  system, 
69  ;  they  procure  the  burning  of  an 
Anabaptist,  358. 

Spain :  wide  circulation  of  Erasmus's 
works  in  ;  344 ;  intense  hatred  of  the 
monks  towards  him,  344 ;  failure  of 
the  attack  against  him,  355. 

Spalatin,  George,  240,  259. 

Speyer,  Diet  of,  369. 

"  Spongia,"  Erasmus's  pamphlet  against 
Hutten,  310. 

St.  Albans,  Abbey  of :  its  state  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  19. 

St.  Andrews,  Archbishop  of  (natural 
son  of  James  II.  of  Scotland) :  a  pupil 
of  Erasmus,  85. 

St.  Angelo,  Cardinal  of :  liberality  to 
Erasmus,  412. 

St.  Augustine  :  Erasmus's  edition  of  his 
works,  2G2 ;  the  saint's  opinion  of 
monks,  352. 

St.  Bertin,  Abbot  of  (brother  of  Bishop 
of  Cambray),  a  good  friend  to  Eras- 
mus, 31,  58,  04  sq.,  71. 

St.  George,  Cardinal  of,  a  friend  of  Eras- 
mus at  Rome,  85  sq. 

St.  Mary's  College,  Oxford,  in  1498,  40. 

St.  Paul's  School,  the  foundation  of,  97 ; 
Erasmus's  description  of  it,  98. 

St.  Peter's,  Rome  :  subsidy  for  its  build- 
ing obtained  by  sale  of  indulgences, 
203. 

Stokesly,  a  learned  linguist  and  theolo- 
gian, 218. 

Students'  life  in  the  University  of  Paris, 
21  sqq. 

Study,  Erasmus's  counsel  in  regard  to, 
65. 


Index. 


433 


Subsidy  Act  (Henry  VIII.),  93. 

Succession,  Act  of  (after  birth  of  Henry 
VIII. 's  daughter  Elizabeth),  407,  409. 

Superstition  :  persistence  of  its  charac- 
teristics, 300. 

Supremacy,  Act  of,  409,  414. 

Swartzerde  (=  Melauchthon),  2. 

Switzerland  :  spread  of  Lutherauism  in. 
384. 

Synaxis  (in  scholastic  theology) :  mean- 
ing of  the  term,  124,  130. 

Terence,  Erasmus's  youthful  liking  for, 

Tetzel  (Dominican  monk) :  his  open  sale 
of  indulgences,  204. 

Theodoric,  a  printer  at  Louvain,  225. 

Theological  controversies  :  Erasmus's 
protest  against.  296. 

Tournehem  Castle  (Lord  of  Vere's  es- 
fcate),  28  ;  Erasmus's  first  visit  to,  29. 

Transubstantiation :  Erasmus's  opinion 
on  the  doctrine,  376. 

Trent,  Bishop  of :  Erasmus's  letter  to, 
pleading  for  prudence  and  judgment 
in  dealing  with  the  Lutherans,  385. 

"  Trojans,'7  afaction  (at  ( >\  ford)  opposed 
to  the  study  of  Greek,  V,:*. 

Tunstall,  Cuthbert  (Master  of  the  Rolls, 
afterwards  bishop),  218;  opposed  to 
Church  reform  in  Ed  i  ind,  372  ;  Eras- 
mus's high  opinion  of  his  character, 
377. 

Turks  :  advance  on  Vienna,  347,  3G3. 

"  Tyr.iniiiii.li,"  Lucian's:  SirT.  More's 
answer  to,  lu7. 

Universities  :  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
forbid  the  reading  or  sale  of  Erasmu  '- 
writings,  138;  a  faction  (the  "  Tro- 
jans ")  formed  at  Oxford  against  the 
study  of  Greek,  138;  Sir  Thomas 
More's  letter  on  tin-  subject,  139. 

Utenhove,  Charles  :  letter  of   Erasmus 
to,  denouncing  the  degeneracy  of  the 
Franciscans,  400 ;  vicious  lives  of  in.  a 
dicanl  friars,   loi. 

"  Utopia  "  (Sir  T.  More's),  107. 

Valla,  Laurentius  :  character  of  his 
writing--,  24 j  Erasmus's  admiration 
for  him,  24. 

Vere,  tin.  Lily  of,  20  sr/.  ;  for  a  time 
Erasmus's  tutelary  spirit,  29 ;  his  en- 
thusiasm for  her,  29,  54  ;  liis  endeav- 
ours  to  obtain  pecuniary  help  from 
uer,  53  ,  hi    mm  ucci     tnl  visit  to  * 


HO  ;  letter  of  Erasmus  to  her,  78  ;  her 
liberality  to  him,  81. 

Vere,  the  Lord  of  :  Erasmus's  description 
of  him,  27  ;  his  death,  50. 

Vestments,  Erasmus's  protest  against 
the  abuse  of,  349. 

Vienna  :  threatened  by  the  Turks,  347. 
3G3. 

"  V inum  Theologicum  :  "  Erasmus's  in- 
terpretation of,  50. 

Volzius,  Abbot  (afterwards  a  Calvinist)  : 
letter  of  Erasmus  to,  213. 

Vows,  monastic:  Erasmus's  arguments 
against,  176. 

Walsinoham,  Our  Lady  of,  97,  221. 

Warham,  Archbishop:  Chancellor  and 
Master  of  the  Rolls, 
of  the  "  Adagia  "  and  ot  i  mu  ,  ~>l  ; 
Erasmus's  indebtedness  t.i  him,  52; 
offers  Erasmus  a  benefice  in  England, 
89 ;  other  tokens  of  his  esteem,  91  ; 
offer  of  a  benefice  repeated,  and  what 
came  ol  it.  94;  settles  a  pension  on 
Erasmus,  94  ;  Erasmus's  estimate  "i 
his  character,  96 ;  jocular  letter  to 
Erasmus  about  the  latter's  complaint 

Of    till-    si ,     III;    "  gold     is    ;t    go 

medicine,"  ill;  opposed  to  Chun  h 

reform  in  Engl  ind,  372  ;  died  ol  grief, 

I ;   Erasmus's  high  opinion  ol   Ids 

■  uaracter,  378  ;  died  \<m\  poor,  406. 

Wartburg,  Castle  of:  Luther  concealed 

I  here  by  the  Elector,  2S.">. 

Wicelius,  Geoi  mus 

to  take  part  in  the  expected  council, 

no. 
Wickliff  and  his  followers:  contrasted 

by  Erasmus  wit  li  Luther  and  the  Lu- 
therans, :ni  ;  driven  into  Bchism  by 

wicked  monks  ami  clergy,  356. 

Wittenberg:  scene  of  tin-  beginning  of 
tin-  Reformation, 

Wolsey,  Cardinal,  89,  169,  172;  Eras- 
mus's letter  to  him  about  Luthi 
movement,  209  ;  dismissed  from  office 
by  Henry  \iii.,  370;  number  ol  his 
bishoprics  and  benefices  in  England, 
,';7i  ;  his  attainder  draws  up  bj  Lord 
Darcy,  371. 

Worms,  Diet  of, 

Zealand,  Erasmus  In,  55. 
Zinthius,  1  n. 

Zwingli  inner,  339. 

Zwlnglians:  refo  ! 

burg,  386. 


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